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I 70 sucks
I prefer their twitter feed. https://twitter.com/ColoradoDOT
Google maps is wrong....my friends were just past silver plume at 6:15 it's now 10 and they still aren't to silverthorne
Im in a hotel in Evergreen right now and i70 is closed. Might not open till noon tomorrow.
They made it to Frisco at 10:15...left Denver at 4:50
"vibes" - this kind of related to that thread about "storm chasing" from Minnesota or something. The only way it works for CO, IMHO, is that you commit to it, take a chance, go early, and get in front of any upcoming weather. Like you needed to be in the Alpine yesterday.
I had a place to stay in Breck for 7 or 8 years. Even the last two years of that, the drive just didn't feel worth it (see below). It didn't help that I was at Breck, where even weekday powder days are a shitshow, though it's better until the tunnel opens. I have a lot going on in my life right now, but the traffic is what I picture when I think of a weekend powder day. It's just not worth it to me.
I only moved here 15 years ago, started skiing more frequently maybe 10 years ago. So with that as a baseline, the traffic got significantly worse 3-4 years ago. I actually equate it with Google and other bay area tech companies moving into the front range.
I don't know that the "classic" traffic times are any worse than they ever were. But two years ago, I noticed that it didn't seem to matter when I drove - traffic at 1pm eastbound. Traffic Friday night westbound. Then Friday night until 7pm. Then 8. Then Thursday night, then Wednesday night. There was one season when it took me several hours to get from Silverthorne to the Eisenhower, driving a stick. That was misery. And I think that was the time I tried to avoid an I-70 closure by leaving early and taking Hoosier Pass; in the meantime, I-70 cleared out, but the weather was so bad that it took me 5 hours to get to Breck on 285, all of which was on the climb toward the end.
It would have been a whole lot easier tracking the handful of hours I-70 is actually open during this storm.
The updated traction law is a complete and utter failure.
Even in a storm like this, it's still perfectly legal to head up I-70 with a rental Camero with "M+S" tires or a 1995 Honda Civic with crappy all-season tires with 3/16 in of tread.
Neither of those or similar vehicles has a chance in hell of making it. They will block traffic, then the plows can't get through, so they close the road to clear the many stuck vehicles. Just stupid.
The traction law during a storm should be four-wheel drive with mountain snowflake tires, period. No need for checkpoints. $1000 fine if you block the road without them. If you don't have an adequate vehicle, wait it out or take a shuttle.
Also, commercial vehicles should only be allowed every 12 hours. They will only be permitted from 10 am to 1 pm, and 10 pm to 1 am, and will be escorted and need to stay in the right lane, with chains of course.
I'm sitting in Denver with a 4x4 with four brand new studded Hakkapeliittas. I'd have no problem making today it even if they didn't plow I-70. They need to get the vehicles off the road that are inadequate for the conditions so they can keep the freaking highway open.
The current situation is ludicrous. Fix the damn traction law and focus on keeping the road open.
Unless you've got more than a foot of clearance under your car -- even the best 4x4 and studded snows would be a challenge without any plowing. The 22" at Loveland isn't light fair dust to push your car through -- it's heavy base-build snow.
And yeah, the traction law hella sucks. I could technically drive our civic with M+S all season up.
Now, I-70 is closed westbound from Golden to the tunnel.
Except for the occasional hour or two for avalanche mitigation, closing I-70 would be unnecessary with an adequate traction law.
This is a public safety issue. I very much hope nobody needs to get to a hospital in Denver today. A friend of our family's died on I-70 stuck in traffic in an ambulance trying to get to Denver during a Sunday afternoon snowstorm. Flight for Life was grounded, just as it is today.
Except for the occasional hour or two for avalanche mitigation, closing I-70 would be unnecessary with an adequate traction law.
This is a public safety issue. I very much hope nobody needs to get to a hospital in Denver today. A friend of our family's died on I-70 stuck in traffic in an ambulance trying to get to Denver during a Sunday afternoon snowstorm. Flight for Life was grounded, just as it is today.
Nah, pushing two feet of snow isn't tough at all. I've pushed three feet fairly easily, making first tracks and pulling out other 4x4's with lesser tires. That was with old studded Firestone Winterforces. It's all about the tires, and the Hakka's are SO much better!
While I feel badly for your family friend, note that eastbound I-70 is open.
Thanks. It was something like fifteen years ago. The problems on I-70 are far from new. It's just crazy there have been no real solutions tried as it's gotten worse and worse each year.
So, eastbound I-70 was open a the time, but it was extraordinarily long travel times with the typical stopped traffic on the EB tunnel approach when it's snowing on a Sunday afternoon. The same old story of cars with inadequate traction blocking traffic. Plows can't get through, and it spirals downward, and everything grinds to a halt, making what should be a two hour trip to St. Anthony's in Lakewood (even in a snowstorm) into easily twice that.
https://www.theonion.com/snowstorm-in-chicago-delays-hundreds-of-morning-murders-1819574592
maintenance crews are working diligently to restore public transportation, de-ice roads, and clear back alleyways so that Chicagoans can quickly resume murdering again,”
maintenance crews are working diligently to restore public transportation, de-ice roads, and clear back alleyways so that Chicagoans can quickly resume murdering again,”
There is no traction law. That thing they call a traction law is something else...I don't know what, but it ain't no traction law.
Wasn't base build snow at Copper. Total 25" of blower. Unfortunately it snowed and blew so hard that nothing steep opened except A lift and that not till 11. Still puking....I had 12 inches on the truck after parking at 7:55 and leaving at 1. Tomorrow should be off the charts good. It was snowing so hard at one point you couldn't see the flyer chair in front of you.
Rode the lift at Copper today with a guy who left Denver at 6:15 and made it to Silverthorne at 8:15. Of course it took him another 45 minutes from Silvy to Copper after stopping to grab his skis
Wait... did he say whether that was 6:15 AM? Or PM?
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