i70 was a pleasure yesterday. Left at 7:40, got to Vail at 9:20. Had dinner at Vail so left late at about 8:00pm, home at 9:35pm 
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I 70 sucks
I don’t do too many day trips but will usually do weekend trips to VT(3 day if I can). I either leave early or late. I’d much rather ski out west but the i70 issues definitely contributed to me choosing UT for my last trip instead of CO.
I can't imagine driving I70 for day trips. Timing is key. At least winter traffic is predictable. Summer traffic is horrendous.
I-70? Where's that?
This past Summer was spectacularly awful. It seemed there was heavy traffic 24/7 all summer long. A lot of winter destination tourists use shuttle services to get to places like Vail. In the summer, everyone drives.
Well, I guess there goes WC. Was it pretty crowded? Still WC is dang far enough away from high pop. centers to ever turn into a Cluster F. Although it is a small ski area...
Hah! Next time you're up on Whale's Tail take a look Copper way off the back side. You can try looking towards Lake Dillon too. Might be able to catch a glimpse.
What does weed have to do with I-70 traffic?
Yep, if your aren't kidding.
Closed.
https://kdvr.com/2019/03/03/avalanche-rolling-down-along-i-70-captured-on-video/
MJ tourism + skiing = more cars on the road and possibly more impaired drivers in those cars.
If someone thinks MJ is the main growth engine causing the boom in Front Range, let alone ski traffic -- well I've got a 125mm waisted full rocker ski that "rips groomers like a GS ski" to sell ya.
IKON and EPIC pass existence has far more to do with increase in I70 traffic the MJ. But noooo....lets scapegoat the drug.
IKON and EPIC pass existence has far more to do with increase in I70 traffic the MJ. But noooo....lets scapegoat the drug.
It's not so bad. You can get from Washington, PA to Seven Springs for a skiing day trip in under 1.5 hours, pretty much any day at any time.
Absolutely agree and should have said so in my post.
Sunday was the most screwed up I've seen I-70 in recent memory. I was on Beaver Creek for the weekend. Saturday was a dud snow wise. Sunday I woke up to 10" or so of snow and it was snowing throughout the day. So for once I said f..it. and I was going to suck it up and ski until my legs were fried. The conditions were too good at BC and I would have had to leave too early to beat the traffic from all the resorts ahead of me. Traffic was going to be horrible no matter what. So I skied from when the lift opened at 8:30, skipped lunch, and I ended up leaving BC around 2pm. Traffic over the Vail pass was slow but moving. I think I beat the I-70 Avalanche closure not by much. But I-70 was closed somewhere between Frisco and Silverthorne. So I got off on Exit 203 (CO-9), topped off the gas tank and windshield wiper fluid. When I got out of the gas station I saw a huge line of cars waiting to make a left turn into Dillon Dam road???? What? That road is usually closed!!! I checked google maps to see if there were additional road closures reported and Google Maps was routing all the poor souls driving I-70 eastbound though that Dillon Dam road. I shook my head and laughed at the irony. Then I got on CO-9 to drive around the I-70 closure until getting to US-6. Decision time again: Loveland Pass or back to I-70. Did a quick check on CDOT and saw that the pass was closed west bound, so I figured it was matter of (not much) time before they closed it in both directions. And it was going to start getting dark soon.... So back to I-70... Once I got into I-70 driving up from Silverthorne, it was the most messed up conditions I've driven on that section of the road. There were at least 10 cars stuck on the right side, plus another significant number were spinning and moving at 10 feet per minute. You could see tires spinning all over the place. Pretty much every sedan was spinning. It was a mess. There were like an additional 5+ semis stuck as well. Some even with chains. One without chains was blocking 1.5 lanes. I mean, once a FWD car with non snow rated tires or a truck lost momentum and stopped moving, it was pretty much game over - they could not get going again. You had to weave through traffic to get by spinning cars and stuck trucks. At one point I freaked out cause almost the three lanes were blocked by cars without traction. There was only a small opening on the left most lane. I started to wonder why they had not shut down I-70. Close to the top of of the hill, the CDOT trucks were trying to clear vehicles by pushing stuck cars to the side. When I got into the tunnel, a semi appeared to have broken down inside the tunnel blocking one of the lanes. Once on the other side of the tunnel, the downhill side was slow but uneventful. Got home around 8pm, So total 6 hrs from Beaver Creek to cover 105 miles. After this experience, I'll never complain again if I see I-70 closed under those conditions. The fear of getting stuck on the road because all lanes are blocked will be in my head. Not because of me, but because of all the idiots that brave those conditions without proper equipment.
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Yes. Thanks for posting your horrible experience.
The traction law need to change. I bet a majority of those FWD cars were perfectly legal being there.
M+S tires don't cut it on FWD in those conditions. They need to be snow tires and the law should require them. And enforce it!
The law should be 2WD with mountain snowflake tires or chains, or 4WD with M+S tires. All with minimum tread depth, of course. I think that's the law is in LCC and should be here as well.
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^^^ sounds miserable. I’ll echo the importance of not only a tougher law but actually enforcing it. They do it in UT, CA and WA. It’s amazing to see these people driving vehicles like a Charger or Prius without proper equipment. Or trucks who ignore the commercial chain law. Amazing and enraging.
