Former Rainier Park Chief Under Fire for Questionable Deal with RMI Owner

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Craig

Craig

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You can't make this stuff up.

-Adventure Journal-In 2002, while deputy superintendent at Rainier, Uberuaga sold his home to Peter Whittaker of Rainier Mountaineering, Inc., which at the time had the sole rights to lead climbers on Mt. Rainier. The selling price was $425,000, more than three times the assessed value, an amount federal investigators called “crazy”. Because it was so far above value, a conventional loan was unavailable, so Uberuaga financed the deal and Whittaker paid him principle and 7 percent interest over five years.
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No quid pro quo there! :rolleyes:

-The Seattle Times-This summer, Uberuaga was rewarded with one of the most prestigious posts in the Park Service: superintendent of Grand Canyon National Park, which boasts some of the nation's richest concessions contracts, with $145 million in gross annual revenues.
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Why oh why can't I get hooked up like this? :D
 
Quote:
-The Seattle Times-This summer, Uberuaga was rewarded with one of the most prestigious posts in the Park Service: superintendent of Grand Canyon National Park, which boasts some of the nation's richest concessions contracts, with $145 million in gross annual revenues.
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So this guy gets a promotion? :confused:

Anyone know where he is going to live and if he is buying a house or are they giving him a house too?
 
In the 550 +/- National Parks Units and National Forests anyone that wants to make money in those unit must obtain a concessions permit.
Usually these permits are issued for several years and may be bid as a competitive process. The department of Interior allows for special consideration to existing concessions permit holders during the competitive bidding process.
The issuance of concession permits throughout the 550 units is left to the superintendent of each unit. In reality the superintendent becomes the purchasing agent of services within his authority, (ripe for impropriety). I think the reasoning is each units unique requirements make centralized purchasing impractical.

The government (rangers) really don't do anything in their units regarding infrastructure. They outsource lodging, guiding, snowblowing, grass mowing, building maintenance etc. The government isn't really good at selling stuff, but they'll buy stuff all day long.

In the case of Mt. Rainier the superintendent delegated concession permits issuance to his 2nd, Uberuaga. The issue at hand was guide services on the mountain. Up until 2002 only 1 guide service was issued a concessions permit, RMI. RMI had a lock on the guiding action. Under pressure to allow other guide services to operate on the mountain a draft proposal was written including 3 guide companies. Each guide company would get an equal quantity of climbing permits.

After Uberuaga sold his house to RMI for 3 times its value the final concession permit proposal was issued giving RMI 50% of the climbing permits and the other 2 companies 25% of the permits each.

Then Uberuaga was promoted to Mt Rainier's superintendent.
Then he was promoted to interim Yosemite superintendent
Now he has been promoted to the Grand Canyon superintendent where he will be in charge of issuing (aka purchasing) 145 million worth of concession permits.

Theres much more to the story if you read both articles. This is great stuff.
 
Craig - I don't think your recitation of the issuance of permits to non-RMI guide services is quite accurate. As Doug points out, RMI had the concession for many years. I know that in 1998 Cascade Alpine was awarded 4 permits for the season, and I believe another company was issued 2. That might have been the 1st or second season these had been granted. I have no idea what percentage of non-RMI permits are issued (I haven't read the articles, maybe the info is there) but 4 permits for the entire year is a fraction of those awarded in 1998 to RMI, and nowhere near approaches 25%.
 
Cascade climbers were probably issued climbing permits (not a concession permit) under the separate names of the individuals going. Cascade climbers weren't really a guide service on the mountain they were just a group of people hiking together. Kind of like the AMC leading hikes in the Pemi. The AMC doesn't need to obtain a guide permit from the FS.

Anyone can obtain a climbing permit for Rainier. You don't need to hire a guide service to climb.
If you want to hike solo, and un-guided there may be additional restrictions.
 
Hmmm ... not quite sure what to make of your most recent post, Craig, but it doesn't give me more confidence in the accuracy of this thread.

Cascade Alpine was a climbing company, much like Exum, Alpine Ascents, Mountain Madness, etc. They were issued 4 permits as a company, not to individuals. I know, because I was on one of their 4 trips. A couple of years later other friends of mine used them as well. Am not sure they're still in business.

Many of us on this board are familiar with the USPS requirements for obtaining a climbing permit for private group on Rainier. If you attempt to climb Rainer solo, and are spotted by a snow ranger - you will be fined.
 
Craig said:
Kind of like the AMC leading hikes in the Pemi. The AMC doesn't need to obtain a guide permit from the FS.
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Not true, all AMC leaders have guide permits issued by the FS. We are required to file trip reports with the FS for every trip we run and carry our guide cards during the trip.
 
What do they mean by "assessed value" in that community? Around here, houses selling for hundresd of thousands of dollars have assessed values less than $10,000. It's used as a basis for local property taxes, but is not the true value of the property.

If someone really paid him three times what it is worth, that would be a smoking gun on some sort of chicanery, but if its just a case of using inflammatory terms without understanding their meaning, then its another newspaper hatchet job.

As for his kids working for the Whittakers, thats a bit awkward, although not necessarily an evil thing.
 
David Metsky said:
Not true, all AMC leaders have guide permits issued by the FS. We are required to file trip reports with the FS for every trip we run and carry our guide cards during the trip.
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My bad. Perhaps you can expound on the details.

1. Are the guide permits issued individually or under the auspices of the AMC concessions permit.
2. Is money exchanged for the permit you acquire and is money exchanged from the persons being guided?
 
Craig said:
My bad. Perhaps you can expound on the details.

1. Are the guide permits issued individually or under the auspices of the AMC concessions permit.
2. Is money exchanged for the permit you acquire and is money exchanged from the persons being guided?
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I thought everyone was aware of the volunteer-led AMC chapter hikes fee schedule - $100 to get to the summit, $150 to get back to your vehicle. Went into affect 1/1/1. ;)

Seriously - all Chapter hikes are free. If a hike is part of a workshop, and materials were provided, there may be a fee to offset the cost of the materials, but only the actual costs are allowed. Volunteer chapter hike leaders are prohibited from charging/accepting $$ for their services.

You might consider volunteering, and going thru the necessary training. At least in that way when you're polishing your axe, it will be an informed axe ...
 
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I am aware AMC guided trips are free. I am also aware that commercial activities (in which the company makes money on public land) require a concessions permits. I am also aware that AMC holds a concessions permit for operating huts and shelters within the WMNF.

The point of my questions was to understand if the guide permits AMC hike leaders have are personal permits or permits issued under some arrangements within the AMC concession permit.

Upon further investigation it appears the WMNF Land and Resource Management Plan allows for annual outfitter/guide permits separate from concession permits. It's unclear if there is a fee associated with this annual permit. I assume there is.

Perhaps the comparison between concession/hiking permits on Rainier and guiding permits for AMC trip leaders wasn't a good one.
 
Craig said:
My bad. Perhaps you can expound on the details.

1. Are the guide permits issued individually or under the auspices of the AMC concessions permit.
2. Is money exchanged for the permit you acquire and is money exchanged from the persons being guided?
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The permits are individual ones. Each committee submits a list of how many leaders require permits, and the FS gives us that number. They aren't related to the concessions permit as far as I know. My name is on my guide card.

Most trips don't involve any money being exchanged, but as mentioned, reasonable trip leader expenses may be covered depending on the committee rules. Trip leaders cannot profit from leading trips.

Neither the trip leader nor the committee are charged for the guide cards. I don't know if there is a fee to the AMC corporate for the 100's of permits we receive.
 
Thanks Dave.

Sorry for the thread drift. I should have known better than to mention AMC in the same thread as a possible Park Service/guide service quid pro quo. It wasn't my intention to link the two. It was my intent to explain Kevin's (anomaly?) by using a local example.
 
Kevin Rooney said:
Many of us on this board are familiar with the USPS requirements for obtaining a climbing permit for private group on Rainier. If you attempt to climb Rainer solo, and are spotted by a snow ranger - you will be fined.
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I think the cornfusion in this thread is about the difference between climbing permits and guiding permits.

Everyone that climbs above 10,000' must have the NPS climbing permit, whether you climb as part of a guided group, with a couple of your climbing buddies or solo. (Kevin - you will not be fined for climbing solo, unless you lack the climbing permit. Going with a guide service is not required for Rainer...yet. :rolleyes:)

Unless there have been recent changes, the only three companies that have guiding permits on Rainier are the aforementioned RMI, IMG and AAI. This triumvirate has the exclusive concession to guide on Rainier -- if you are are caught guiding (i.e., for money) on the mountain, bad things will happen. (Think 50 lashes with a Prussik and hard labour chopping the Nisqually Glacier into cocktail-sized ice cubes, with...a dull mountaineering axe! :D)

I'm not sussed-out on all the details, but there appears to be a limited number of cases where smaller guide companies (and perhaps independet guides) can obtain permits -- either directly from NPS, but I think more likely sub-licenced from RMI/IMG/AAI -- to run guided climbs on Rainier. My hunch is that is how Cascade Alpine's trip was handled when Kevin climbed with them.

As much as there is to complain about the NPS, their oversight of the guiding concession on Mt. Rainier does include some important traffic management, so that one doesn't have, say, six guided groups of a dozen people each heading up the same route at the same time. Given the popularity of the mountain, and the small number of easy routes, NPS's regulations certainly help reduce the clusterflock factor.
 
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