As a rural electric cooperative, we provide power for communities in some pretty far-out locations in our service territory. We’re also responsible for maintaining the power lines that feed into these remote areas.

Earlier this month, our Operations Department sent out an “All Hands on Deck!” invitation to all HCE employees for help on maintenance in one of these remote locations, up the Frying Pan River northeast of the town of Basalt.

All told, dozens of non-operations employees strapped on hard hats and gloves hiked up to two miles through rough terrain and assisted our line crews in updating equipment on 54 poles along this section of line.

The team effort paid off, and our line crew was able to complete their work faster than anticipated, meaning the scheduled outage for members along this line was shorter than originally planned.

Our non-operations employees not only had fun getting to know our line crews but also gained some first-hand insight into the hard work our operations teams put in every single day to keep power flowing to our members.

Here are a few snapshots from the day.