More than 1,000 travelers were forced to spend Sunday night in temporary Red Cross shelters after blowing snow and near-blizzard conditions closed Interstate 70.
Officials closed I-70 in both directions between Georgetown and Vail after 5:30 p.m. due to near-whiteout conditions.
Later in the evening, eastbound I-70 was closed between Floyd Hill and Georgetown. The Colorado Department of Transportation said it expected the highway to be closed until this morning.
The American Red Cross opened shelters for stranded travelers in Kremmling, Silverthorne and Frisco.
Other travelers ended up at Copper Mountain Resort, Dillon Community Church and LaQuinta Silverthorne, the Red Cross said.
David Jewell of Colorado Springs was among nearly 600 who ended up in the temporary shelter at the Silverthorne Recreation Center.
“I haven’t skied in a long time and picked a great day to come up, let me tell you,” he said sarcastically by telephone. “We were coming back through Frisco, and we were going about 5 mph till we got to Dillon. I’ve never seen an interstate so bad; it was almost a parking lot.
“It was hopeless getting a hotel room; they were all booked. We pulled into a Wendy’s and heard people talking about the rec center being open, so we came here.”
He said the Red Cross was bringing in cots for the people flocking to the center.
“They’re taking care of children and elderly people first. Everyone here is being respectful and orderly,” he said.
In addition to the people in Silverthorne, the Red Cross said it was sheltering about 180 people at Summit Middle School in Frisco and another 100 in the West Grand High School in Kremmling.
P.J. Bailey told The Associated Press that she left Breckenridge to head home to Denver around 1 p.m., but nearly four hours later, she was no further than Georgetown.
“I was told it would get better, but a mile east of Georgetown, there were whiteout conditions. You couldn’t even see the front of your car,” she said.
She pulled onto a shoulder for about 15 minutes but finally decided to head back to Georgetown for the night after watching ambulances drive past.
“You should see this town. There’s people stopped everywhere,” she said.
Hunter Miller, who left his home in Grand Junction around 10:15 a.m. with tickets for a Denver Nuggets game Sunday night, said it took about five hours to go the 52 miles between Vail and Georgetown.
Even drivers who made it down to the Denver area from Summit County before the interstate closed reported that the trip took four to five hours or more.
In addition to I-70, U.S. 6 over Loveland Pass also was closed Sunday night, as was U.S. 40 over Rabbit Ears and Berthoud passes.
U.S. 85 north of Ault and Interstate 25 north of Wellington, which had been closed much of Sunday evening, reopened at about 10 p.m..
Snow, ice and accidents closed Colorado 134 at Gore Pass, Colorado 14 near Walden and U.S. 160 near Walsenburg.
A snow-and-blowing- snow advisory remained in effect above 9,000 feet until noon today.
A blowing-snow advisory was in effect for the same time in parts of the foothills, including Golden, Lakewood, Boulder and Longmont, said the National Weather Service.
However, once the winds die down, conditions should improve and little snow is expected for the next seven days, the Weather Service said.
Total December snowfall for the Denver area has been 20.9 inches, making it the sixth-snowiest December since 1882, when records were first kept.
Denver Post staff writers Tom McGhee and Manny Gonzales and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
