A Sunday drive on Interstate 70 over some of Colorado’s most trafficked mountain passes morphed into a chaotic war of attrition for motorists, some of whom finally arrived back home on the Front Range on Monday morning.
“It was anarchy,” said Eric Durnell, who made it to the eastbound bore of the Eisenhower-Johnson Tunnel after a 4½-hour crawl Sunday.
“For the first two hours, it was about a 1-mile movement,” the Denver-area resident said. “We saw at least two ambulances, no less than five tow trucks with cars on them, and two CDOT (Colorado Department of Transportation) trucks. Cars were spinning out everywhere. It was like the Grand Prix.”
Others reported drives that stretched for 10 hours along the roughly 50 miles from Vail to Georgetown. Some were stuck for so long that they opened up their doors, unzipped and relieved themselves along the highway.
“The only cars that could make it up the hill were four-wheel-drive vehicles,” said Karla Walker, who spent 10 hours on I-70 with her 13-year-old son and a friend. “So everything else, including a police car, was struck in the snow. I’ve never seen anything like it. Once we finally got to the problem area, we had to weave in and out of all the stuck cars and 18-wheel rigs.”
CDOT spokeswoman Amy Ford said a variety of factors contributed to the I-70 mess on Sunday, including fresh snow measured in feet at some ski areas and the vehicle congestion related to people trying to reach it.
Numerous accidents and adverse conditions closed I-70 over Vail Pass at 5:30 p.m. The pass reopened at 1:30 a.m. Monday. Eastbound I-70 from Silverthorne to the tunnel was closed for almost two hours starting at 4 p.m. to clear multiple accidents, she said.
The highway closed again for 45 minutes starting at 10:27 p.m. Sunday.
Snow piling up fast on U.S. 6 forced the closure of Loveland Pass at 2:51 p.m. Friday, pushing traffic destined for Arapahoe Basin — where about 33 inches fell over four days — onto I-70. The pass remained closed Monday afternoon, Ford said.
And the closures didn’t stop Sunday night. Berthoud Pass, where new snow was measured at 20 inches, was closed for eight hours early Monday morning because of an avalanche.
CDOT tried to improve traffic flow on I-70 Sunday afternoon by deploying traffic metering on the eastbound approach to the tunnel. Metering stops traffic periodically when volume is too heavy and also allows ambulances through the tunnel area during emergencies.
“There was just a mixture of factors,” said Ford. “There were a lot of issues.”
Some motorists said they heard CDOT warnings about traffic problems and pulled off to eat or go to a movie. Others gave up and spent the night at local motels.
Nate Johnson and his fellow travelers thought they’d beat the traffic by stopping for dinner in Dillon on Sunday night. But the knot never eased, so they tried to find a hotel — and soon discovered that all of them were booked up. They ended up staying with a friend in Silverthorne, where snow stacked up 21 inches deep over the weekend.
Johnson said it took them an hour just to get out of the shopping center parking lot in Dillon and drive the 2 miles to their friend’s house in Silverthorne.
“Overall, it was the craziest day on the roads I can recall,” Johnson said. “Obviously, the weather was snowy … and there was a lot of volume, but how did CDOT let the roads get bad up at the tunnel?”
CDOT’s metering also didn’t help, he said.
“Stopping a semi truck on an icy hill and then expecting it to just start meandering up the hill again is ridiculous,” Johnson said.
Monte Whaley: 720-929-0907, mwhaley@denverpost.com or
Deep and steep
Snow fell steady for four days in Colorado’s high country. Here are some totals:
54 inches near Breckenridge
38 inches at Bear Lake
37 inches at Wild Basin
30 inches on Rabbit Ears Pass
30 inches at Lake Eldora
21 inches on Vail Mountain
20 inches on Berthoud Pass
21 inches at Silverthorne
18 inches at Copper Mountain
15 inches at Keystone
15 inches at Tabernash
Source: National Weather Service, Community Collaborative Rain, Hail & Snow Network
