The cost for two additional seasonal resource protection personnel to provide seven day access is $47,770 plus $2,518 for vehicles.  If the new standard for NPS decisions is based on number of visitors, it seems reasonable that funding for two seasonal employees could be diverted from summertime wilderness duty to winter at Hurricane.

The two additional seasonal rangers would allow the road to be open on days such as are forecast for the foreseeable future where no new snow is forecast. For example, in 2011-12 season there was no precipitation from November 30 to December 25, and again for a long stretch in Jan-Feb.