only in Alaska

An early morning avalanche on Wednesday took out Juneau's main source of power, forcing a switch from hydropower to diesel and likely causing electricity rates to quadruple. Quadruple! The quotes in the paper today talked about how the capital would now be like the rural, roadless villages we hear about where electricity costs 50 cents a kwh and up. Apparently the transmission line goes over some rugged country. The avalanche was reported to be a mile and a half wide. Yikes.
And that was yesterday, before a giant snowstorm dumped about a foot of fresh pow on the city and even more at the ski area. When you factor in the slope of the hill and the knee bend of a tele turn, the snow was up to my waist, plowing into my goggles like in a ski mag cover shot. Amazing stuff, and probably the biggest single snowstorm of the year.