JACKSON, Wyo. — Johnny Ziem hopped out of bed just before midnight Friday when the Town of Jackson Public Works received a call with reports of flooding by the townhomes located at 355 W Deloney Avenue.
The culprit was an avalanche in the gully known as “Taco Bell Couloir” on East Gros Ventre Butte.
When the avalanche slid, a debris pile obstructed Flat Creek, pushing water into the area of Meadowbrook/ Town Creek Townhomes, said Ziem, assistant public works director with the Town of Jackson.
At its deepest point, the part of the parking lot closest to the Loaf N’ Jug gas station had close to two feet of flooding.
Ziem says Jackson Police Department responded quickly, going door to door to ensure residents were awake to move their cars away from the areas affected. An alert issued by Rich Ochs, coordinator for Teton County Emergency Management at 12:17 a.m., advised the same.
At the scene, Ziem talked with the town’s streets manager and they started to call excavators. While the town owns its own excavators, it didn’t have one big enough to do the kind of work necessary to clear the debris.
After struggling to get ahold of someone to operate an excavator, the owner of Ridgeline Excavation picked up the phone and sent an operator to assist with excavating.
The operator was advised to dig a trench to form a pressure release so the creek could begin to flow again. By 2 a.m., the creek was moving and the operator had done just that.
“Luckily we were able to dig a channel into it and the creek started flowing.”
Johnny Ziem, Town of Jackson Assistant Public Works Director
By Saturday morning at 4 a.m. everything was pretty buttoned up, says Ziem.
Throughout the night the cause of the avalanche wasn’t clear.
“We didn’t know what caused it because it was dark and then the next morning I saw ski tracks going into it.”
Images and a report from the Bridger-Teton Avalanche Center corroborate Ziems’s observation.
“This was triggered by two people around 10 p.m. on Feb. 24,” reads the BTAC report.
Taco Bell Couloir gained some fame in 2014 when Powder Magazine spoke of it as an “iconic, must-do urban backcountry hit.” The magazine mentions the danger it poses to the public in the event of an avalanche with its close proximity to town and also how it threatens wintering wildlife. But still, the article, “Get a Taste of Taco Bell Couloir,” speaks of the run as “a sick line.” In order to access it, skiers are required to criminally trespass the land with the zone surrounded by private property on all sides.
In Jackson, that’s a misdemeanor that can cost up to $750, and that doesn’t mention the time and effort of local entities to clean up a natural disaster on a Friday night.
