JACKSON, Wyo.—Jeff Brines owns up to having disrupted the lives of many people who travel between Wyoming and Idaho. He's sorry.
He was skiing above Teton Pass on the Wyoming-Idaho border. He's done so 1,000 times, beckoned by the wonderful snow especially in an area call Glory Bowl. It's located above the highway that connects Jackson with Victor and Driggs, the Idaho towns where many workers in Jackson, as well as the Jackson Hole Mountain Resort, work.
Brines and his dog were unhurt when he triggered the avalanche that closed the highway for most of a day. Moreover, he had no immediate knowledge of whether the avalanche might have buried somebody below.
"That was one of the darkest moments of my life," Brines told the Jackson Hole News&Guide.
"That feeling that you might have hurt somebody else is something I hope I never feel again."
Nobody on the highway was hurt or even hit by the snowy torrents. But there was great inconvenience.
The slide occurred at 7:30 a.m. The highway remained closed until 5 p.m. There's another way, through a town called Alpine. But it adds more than an hour to the trip.
The News&Guide reported rising tension between users of the backcountry above the pass and Wyoming transportation officials responsible for the safety of travellers.
A local resident, Jay Pistono, who spearheads much of the outreach work with skiers, said he has pushed the idea that those slide-prone areas, as delicious as the skiing can be, should be informally off-limits.
"You just don't ski those runs," he said.
