Skiers enjoying evening runs on Cypress Mountain found themselves suddenly swooshing down the slopes in comparative darkness Sunday after a power circuit tripped in one of BC Hydro’s high-voltage Lower Mainland transmission lines.
Lights illuminating the slopes for night skiing at the resort flickered off at about 7:30 p.m. following a “bump” in BC Hydro’s power system that caused electrical breakers on the mountain to reset.
Joffrey Koeman, spokesman for Cypress, said most skiers on the mountain at the time “hunkered down” and waited for the lights to come back on – about 10 minutes later. Skiers weren’t plunged into pitch darkness, he said, because of the reflection off the snow itself.
Others whose electricity feeds off the same transmission line may have noticed a flicker in their lights or had their surge-protection equipment kick in Sunday evening, said Mora Scott, spokeswoman for BC Hydro. “It’s an extremely rare kind of event.”
