The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
Judge agrees to jury request for lighter sentence
Two young men will be learning more about avalanche danger this winter after being tried in court for ducking a rope at Crested Butte Mountain Resort. At the jury’s request for an alternative punishment, Gunnison County Court judge Ben Eden sentenced the two to take a mandatory avalanche safety class.
On January 31, five men were issued a summons into court after they were caught poaching Third Bowl. The men, whose ages range from 18 to 22, ducked a rope upslope of where two ski patrollers were performing avalanche control work. Due to the circumstances, the men were charged with reckless endangerment as well as violations of skier codes.
A trial was scheduled for Monday, June 8, but three of the men accepted a plea agreement from the district attorney prior to the trial, which included two nights in jail and a fine.
The two others, brothers Justin and Derek Deschene, were tried by jury and found guilty of both charges.
CBMR safety and human resources director Lilly Hughes says the brothers argued that their friends led them into the closed terrain—and although they knew it was closed, they did not realize they were endangering the ski patrollers to such a degree.
Local resident Steve Glazer was on the jury. “We asked to talk to the judge after the verdict… We told him we thought these two young brothers really didn’t understand the significance of their actions,” Glazer says.
Glazer says the jurors suggested to the judge that the young men take an avalanche awareness course instead of the usual punishment.
Judge Eden ultimately gave the accused six months of probation, 24 hours of community service, and the requirement to take—and pay for—the avalanche course.
Hughes says the lesson to learn is crossing ropes at the ski area affects not only your own safety, but the safety of others.
