The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
CB Avy Center helps out the team
By Mark Reaman
An avalanche up Walrod Gulch in the Cement Creek Valley on Friday, January 18 caused a temporary power outage for several Gunnison County Electric Association customers and required the help of the Crested Butte Avalanche Center to get the electricity flowing again.
According to GCEA chief operating officer Roger Grogg, the avalanche came down at about 6 a.m. between a couple of GCEA poles, wrapping the neutral wire around the phase wire and causing a direct short. The GCEA received word about the event about 8 a.m. Friday and dispatched a crew to the area.
“Crews went up and patrolled the line that they could safely do. The problem was then spotted with binoculars from a safe place. I might overestimate a bit, but in my mind we were standing on over 25 feet of debris,” explained Grogg.
Grogg said members of the Crested Butte Avalanche Center, Than Acuff, Eric Murrow and Evan Ross, came to the scene to assist the GCEA crew. “They helped check out the situation,” explained Grogg. “Even though we could see it had slid, we did not know if the entire thing went. They checked it out and said it ripped from the top and that we would probably be okay staying to the left of the slide debris, but to stay away from the other side that had not slid. What was also great was that we had just received avalanche training in December from Krista Hildebrandt of Crested Butte Mountain Resort ski patrol and all safety protocols were followed.”
According to Grogg, the outage placed GCEA in a strange situation because members were out of power and would have to cross avalanche terrain to get out. “We did not want them to put themselves in jeopardy,” he said. “It all worked out with the great assistance of Crested Butte avalanche folks.”
Power was restored at 4:40 p.m.
