At the west switchback above the mule rest, Hessa Tor keeps the winter count file beside a fresh fan of chips below the retaining wall’s third drain. The two details are easy to miss in a summary: one is a line in a ledger, the other is the condition that decides whether the line is useful.
Hessa Tor is the route marshal for the west road. On this thaw season visit, the work begins with the road crew’s stonefall notices and the mule train delay book; only after the entry is checked can the crew say what the rule asks of the people below.
22 switchback closures lasting longer than one bell were entered this cycle, compared with 18 in the prior file. The figure is one part of a longer handoff. Varda Kin checked the road crew’s stonefall notices and the mule train delay book against the field notes. The method is to trace the route from the first signal to the final gate receipt; it confirms the entries, but not every interpretation attached to them.
Carriers call short closures manageable; masons say repeated traffic shakes loose stone from the same seam. The current record does not settle that disagreement. Residents closest to the work describe the difference as a route, a wait or a shift that cannot be moved on a slate. Their accounts have been attached to the docket rather than folded into the total.
A public vote has approved a narrow change while leaving the larger question open. The entry belongs to the winter count file at the west switchback above the mule rest. The route marshal will time a loaded test after the drain has been cleared. The next visit will show whether the revision travels beyond the office that wrote it.
