CRESTED BUTTE, Colo.—A storm that dumped two feet of snow in the mountains of western Colorado and record rainfall in lower elevations by Saturday morning also delayed a World Cup ski race and led to slick roads.
Eastbound Interstate 70 was closed for about three hours Saturday night leading up to Vail Pass in the mountains due to accidents on icy, snowpacked roads.
Chain restrictions were in effect on a number of mountain passes, and transportation officials closed U.S. 6 over Loveland Pass in the evening due to poor weather.
In Beaver Creek, the storm forced race organizers to postpone a men’s World Cup super-G originally scheduled for Saturday to Monday, because of poor visibility on the slope.
The six fresh inches of fresh snow also was too much for crews to clear in time for the race. The giant slalom scheduled for Sunday was expected to run as planned.
In the plains near Wellington, one man was killed when he was ejected from a van that slid off southbound Interstate 25, rolled and struck a fence, the Colorado State Patrol said. His identity was not released. The van driver and two other passengers were injured, troopers said.
Troopers said I-25 was very icy at the time of the crash.
In Crested Butte, snow began falling Friday. By the time skate shop employee Jon Larason made it to Crested Butte Mountain Resort on Saturday morning for his daily ski runs, there was plenty of new powder.
“It was sick. It was light and fluffy,” said Larason, 24. “It better keep snowing.”
The National Weather Service said two feet of snow had fallen on Grand Mesa and 9 inches at Crested Butte by Saturday morning, and more was coming down.
“I’m sure it’s still piling up there,” forecaster Jerry Smith said.
Four to seven more inches were expected for the San Juan Mountains in southwest Colorado through Sunday, and 5 to 10 inches was forecast for the Crested Butte, Aspen and Vail areas. Steamboat Springs was expected to get 8 to 14 inches.
The storm brought moisture to a corner of Colorado that had been thirsting for it.
“Everybody’s been so dry since early October really,” Smith said.
Lower-lying areas that didn’t get snow still benefited from rain. Cortez reported 1.12 inches, while the Vallecito Dam near Bayfield had 3.3 inches, breaking the previous 24-hour rainfall record there of 1.22 inches set in 1982, Smith said.
The Weather Service had not received any reports of flooding as of Saturday afternoon.
The scene was much different in southeast Colorado, where dry conditions and gusts estimated at 50 mph fueled three large wildfires. One fire, estimated at “several hundred acres” destroyed three empty mobile homes, burned a semitrailer that ran off U.S. 50 because of the smoke, and burned power lines, Bent County Sheriff Gerry Oyen said. No injuries were reported.
