State transportation workers are stretched thin battling extreme avalanche danger looming over Colorado’s high country highways. And another 2 feet of snow could fall in the mountains before the weekend.
Avalanche mitigation and danger on Tuesday after three days of heavy snow and prompted because of worries about slides on U.S. 6 over Loveland Pass.
Officials say avalanche paths that don’t normally slide on their own are sending snow onto highways, including one on Vail Pass that released just before 3 a.m. on Tuesday, catching three tractor-trailers and burying the westbound lanes of I-70 under about 15 feet of snow. The slide happened in a path known as “the narrows” that had been mitigated late last week.
Avalanche blocking both west and east I-70 Vail pass. Road closures at Vail and Copper Mtn.
— CSP Eagle (@CSP_Eagle)
“The breadth of this storm and how many areas are in avalanche danger, it’s pretty atypical,” said Mike Lewis, deputy executive director of the Colorado Department of Transportation. “This is sort of everywhere. It definitely stretches the resources.”
Avalanches are the latest in a litany of problems stemming from a series of storms set to keep pounding the state until Friday thanks to a phenomenon called the Atmospheric River — but known as the “Pineapple Express” — that comes around perhaps only once a decade. On Monday, Colorado Springs trying to deal with 101-mph gales as feet of snow fell in the mountains, .
“We still have a few storms to go,” said Dennis Phillips, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Grand Junction. “We’re in this favored westerly flow where we have some great moisture coming right off the Pacific, right through California. It’s just continuing to flow right into the central Rockies.”
“It has given us about everything it can throw at us,” he added.
Crested Butte has tallied about 4 feet of snow since Saturday, while Aspen and Steamboat Springs have been socked in with roughly 2 feet. Monarch Mountain, for the second time in six days because of avalanche-risk mitigation on U.S. 50, has gotten 64 inches of snow in the past week.
Monarch Mountain will not open today.
CDOT closed Hwy 50 all last night for avalanche control. Stay tuned for info about tomorrow.
— Monarch Mountain (@MonarchMountain)
“This is a really unusual event,” said Ethan Greene, director of the Colorado Avalanche Information Center. “It has to do with the amount of snow and the water content of that snow and how it’s come in. We’re seeing areas like Wolf Creek Pass and Vail Pass that are getting 5 inches or 8 inches of water. That’s just a huge amount of weight that’s going onto our snowpack.”
Every high country areas except for the Sangre de Cristo zone until Wednesday night, and the risk of slides isn’t expected to dissipate for several days. Loveland Pass between Loveland Ski Area and Keystone Resort wasn’t expected to reopen until sometime Wednesday. CDOT said it was working as fast as it could, keeping the economic impact on A-Basin in mind.
“Itap a crazy weather cycle up here,” said Adrienne Saia Isaac, an A-Basin spokeswoman, as she prepared to leave the resort. She didn’t know of another evacuation and rapid closure at Arapahoe Basin like the one that took place Tuesday.
“We want to keep the roadways open as much as we can,” Lewis said. “(But) we’re always going to come down on the side of public safety to not put people at risk.”
Meanwhile, transportation companies and snowbound retailers are hoping that roads can be cleared before stocks of fuel and groceries are gone.
“There will be a window of time when things will be fine, but at some point they will start running out,” said Patti Gillette, vice president of the Colorado Motor Carriers Association.
ALERT: Heavy collapses portion of a building's covered walkway in EagleVail. No injuries reported via .
— Matt Kroschel (@Matt_Kroschel)
The most immediate supply impact would be on fuel, which is normally taken west on U.S. 6 over Loveland Pass, which serves a hazardous materials route through the mountains, Gillette said. Busy gas stations sometimes rely on multiple gas drops each day.
Grocery stores that rely on frequent delivery of perishables — such as milk and fresh vegetables — can also quickly face supply problems. “Nobody really holds inventory. They’re expecting a truck to deliver their next shelf full of milk,” Gillette said.
Deliveries to King Soopers and City Markets along the I-70 corridor are being delayed by the closure, said Kelli McGannon, spokeswoman for the supermarkets. “(Drivers) are either stuck behind the closure or are taking alternate routes with thousands of our friends. We expect they will be able to make their deliveries, but they will be delayed,” she said.
Erik Brooking, a 37-year-old trucker from Florida, was headed to Telluride on Tuesday morning to pick up a load. Then he got a call saying it wouldn’t be possible.
Due to avalanche concerns on Loveland Pass, we are CLOSING ALL SKIER SERVICES STARTING AT 1:00 p.m. 1/10/17. Stay tuned for updates.
— Arapahoe Basin (@Arapahoe_Basin)
“They can’t load me up because the facility is snowed in,” said Brooking, who was stopped at the Travel Centers of America truck stop in Commerce City.
Randy Ulman, 56, was also at the truck stop. He was headed through the mountains Monday night when he encountered so much snow and ice that he had to turn back, he said. He took the load he was carrying back to Aurora, where it was taken off his truck.
“I will probably go get another load and go east,” he said, “and get away from this crazy stuff.”
CDOT says motorists need to be prepared for treacherous travel into next week. With more snow coming, avalanche slide paths will need more control, meaning further closures of I-70 and passes over state highways are likely.
“Right now the forecast is showing that more snow is coming all the way through Friday,” CDOT’s highways operations director Kyle Lester said. “Those paths will fill up. It’s a matter of when. Future mitigation efforts will be needed.”
