With snow piling up in avalanche chutes on Red Mountain Pass, a three-member helicopter team early today dropped explosives to prevent the snow from reaching U.S. 550, which snakes over the pass in southwest Colorado.
The avalanche-control work — a cooperative effort of the Colorado Department of Transportation and the Colorado Avalanche Information Center — has taken on added dimensions this winter, as one snowstorm after another has hit Colorado.
“This is, by far, in southwest Colorado the busiest we’ve been in decades for avalanche-control work,” CDOT spokesperson Stacey Stegman said today.
Although U.S. 550 remains closed due to snow on the pass, Stegman said that it is important for CDOT crews to trigger snowslides in the avalanche chutes before the snow cascades down onto the highway.
The number of charges dropped from the helicopter depends on the conditions the crew observes.
She said that the crew consists of a pilot, a CDOT explosives expert and usually a forecaster from the Colorado Avalanche Information Center.
“We feel very lucky to have such talented pilots because it is risky — often flying in extreme weather conditions with explosives aboard,” she said.
The pilots are not CDOT employees, and the helicopters are leased by the state highway agency. CDOT and the Colorado Avalanche Information Center have worked together for years in avalanche mitigation. CDOT contracts with the information center for the work.
Stegman said CDOT only closes highways “when there are extreme public-safety issues.
Howard Pankratz: 303-954-1939 or hpankratz@denverpost.com
