Accidents happen…

It was a period for accidents—and I got to write about them. Starting at the end of last week I felt like I was in the middle of some bad TBS reality show or something like Shark Week. Tune in and enjoy Accident Week on your cable TV station…

Let’s not even touch on the snowmobilers who were trapped in a Kebler avalanche that resulted in a young man’s untimely death. I don’t want to write about such things and I wish people wouldn’t tempt that sort of obvious bad fate. Pay attention people: Some accidents are eminently avoidable.

Then there’s an accident that hasn’t happened yet story. The town’s insurance company and some staff were concerned by an annual Crested Butte event that has snowmobiles roaring down Elk Avenue at 40 mph next to families out for a stroll as the snowmobiles drag skiers and boarders to a jump at the main intersection of town. Worry warts. The volunteer organizer rightly claimed there are not a whole lot of such events happening in the world and he’s run a pretty safe event for years. The council chose to pay a safety group $2,500 to review the event. The report said Big Air on Elk could be a tad safer and that will be the case. Of course the town will throw another $1500 for barrier placement.

The most interesting accident of the week was a plane crash…sort of. This plane came equipped with a parachute and that made all the difference. The plane was sort of wearing an avy air bag. Crested Butte Search and Rescue was called up to Reno Divide in a winter blizzard to rescue a pilot who “crashed” his plane during a brutal storm. But this plane had an emergency parachute that was successfully deployed by the pilot. His luck continued, as the plane landed in one of the few soft, flat spots around. It could have been bad but the pilot survived without any injury and ended up simply cold and waiting for the local Crested Butte SAR heroes who found their way to him. They took him out of the backcountry and into town for dinner at the Steep. I guess Reno-Flag-Bear will have to be one of my first bike rides this spring to check out a plane sitting up there. It could end up like the old-school snowmobile entrenched on the Lupine Trail.

The Irwin Backcountry Guides snowcat had an accident in a similar storm as it lost its way, off the road, and tipped over onto its side on Lake Irwin. Ouch. It was an accident that some adversaries of the company want to turn into the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. The Lake Irwin Coalition seems to be hoping the tipped-over Tucker turns into the smoking gun that sends Irwin, Eleven and all the other Irwin-associated businesses into the drain. Don’t count on it. Accidents do happen and it appears the regulating agencies are aware of that. There is no indication regulators are jumping to the conclusion that Irwin contaminated the town’s water supply, as happened in West Virginia’s Kanawha County. This appears to be more along the lines of some local rapscallion Irwinites roosting the lake on their snowmobiles.

A flood that started from the top of Marcellina Apartments was the accident with the most immediate and disturbing local impact. A worker tripped a fire sprinkler line and it ended up flooding 32 low-rent units. The damage was such that the tenants were told to leave the building—for good. That sucks. So now some seasonal workers are looking for a roof in the middle of the ski season. Good luck. The property owners haven’t committed to helping them out yet. Crested Butte Mountain Resort knows its business depends on workers so the ski company is searching for ways to place some of the newly homeless in a room. The new owners of the Marcellina property had expressed an interest in turning the building into condos when they bought it, so those residents were likely out of there in May anyway—but there’s a big difference between getting the notice in the spring and getting the word in February with a good luck kick in the arse. Let’s see how the owners, Blueline Properties, step up to assist some ski bums in the valley. They shouldn’t be left high and dry (or wet) because of an accident. According to the company website: “Blueline stands behind its commitment to residents. Our leasing and maintenance staff strive to provide superior service. Taking care of our residents is the company’s top priority.” We’ll see.

The other story that surfaced this week was how our local watchdogs are going to deal with a new U.S. Energy application to clean up the old Keystone mine site with a VCUP (Voluntary Cleanup Program). A VCUP might be a good idea to help clean up that site. It might not be. While talks with the U.S. Energy guys are appropriate, the local stakeholder groups should make it clear they won’t allow a mining operation to threaten our water, our environment or our economy. That would be the ultimate accident.