Major Winter Storm Knocks Out Power To Jackson Hole

Seventeen steel power poles along Highway 390 south of Teton Village were blown down in Tuesday night’s storm.

Jackson Hole Mountain Resort will remain closed through at least Monday, Feb. 13 after a major winter snow and wind storm knocked out power to the mountain and Teton Village Tuesday.

“After receiving updates throughout the day from Lower Valley Energy and assessing resources in Teton Village, JHMR is unable to re-open for the weekend, and the earliest targeted open date at this time is Monday, February 13th,” Jackson Hole Mountain Resort posted on its website.

Due to a massive wind storm Tuesday night night, a significant number of power poles along Highway 390 were blown down, causing Teton Village to lose power. At Jackson Hole Airport, the windstorm that swept over the valley canceled and delayed flights. The sleet and colder nighttime temperatures coupled to create 1 inch of ice buildup on the runway, which hampered operations significantly.

Lower Valley Energy’s plan is to clear snow to each of the downed steel poles and begin erecting temporary wooden poles to hold the power lines. The extended power outage is because the power line that went down was the major source for power north of Jackson.

“Most of the power lines you see in our service territory are smaller distribution lines,” Lower Valley Energy spokesman Brian Tanabe wrote in a release. “When distribution lines go down we can more easily re-route power to energize the affected areas. Transmission lines feed large amounts of power to our substations, which are then distributed out to our customers. When the transmission system fails for whatever reason, the line needs to be entirely repaired versus re-routing power.”

To help fix the transmission lines, staff and equipment are on the way from Utah and Idaho, as well as other areas in Wyoming.

In the meantime, Jackson Hole Mountain Resort will remain closed to all but essential personal. This includes no uphill (backcountry) access.

“There is no uphill travel at this time, and JHMR is seriously enforcing this policy and asks everyone to stay off the mountain during this incident,” Communications Manager Anna Cole said in a release.