Ten Mile Canyon avalanche caught on camera

[tball]

Drive by photos from this afternoon:

Where did the bike path go?

I wish there was somewhere safe to pull over and take more pictures. I missed the close up of the third chute you can see furthest away in the first picture.

It's an absolutely gorgeous rock wall. One of my favorite things is driving by at night with a full moon. Just stunning.

 

[Mike King]

@tball , did you ski today? How was it?

 

[SBrown]

heh, me too

 

[tball]

@Mike King, no skiing, unfortunatly had a 3 hour conference call this morning.

No doubt the skiing was fantastic today with the sun coming out. This was almost 4 pm yesterday at the bottom of the hill:

 

[tball]

The magic of google photos search found me a couple shots of the bike path.

This is going down the hill toward Frisco. You can see I-70 on the left:

This is going up the hill toward Copper. You can see the creek on the right. I-70 is out of view beyond the creek. There's just a bit of snow left in the chute immediately ahead:

 

[kimmyt]

Oh huh, it also slid today? I may have driven right past it as it was going. It was mostly loose slough and a lot of snow clouds coming down off of the rock walls by Frisco (where the climbing route Royal Flush is), or maybe it was just wind but I did notice a lot of little bits coming off the rock. Nothing noticeable coming onto the road though. I drove out this morning to ski Copper (great snow, lots of residual crowds) and there was still a surprising amount of snow on the road that made slow going as well as noticeable avy debris by Officers Gulch from yesterdays slides. By the time I headed home things were warming up and the roads were clear, but like I said there was a lot of snow coming down off those rock walls.

 

[SBrown]

There was yet another avalanche this afternoon in ten mile canyon....

Mike

https://denver.cbslocal.com/2019/03...-gulch/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

 

[tball]

Copper's snow report from this morning for the permanent record:

That was quite a storm. Such fun skiing!

 

[Tricia]

Summit Daily has an update and more video.
https://www.summitdaily.com/news/ne...Eal-_prsl-x9kpZulg8TdArIJ-wqGHTEAUk3sC3MvQKVk

 

[Mike King]

Interesting story on this year’s avalanche problem for highways.

https://coloradosun.com/2019/03/06/colorado-avalanche-i70-mountains-roads/

 

[tball]

^^^ Great, must read, article, thanks Mike!

Somehow I had never heard the history of the Disney Chute on Berthoud Pass. Quite the story.

It's remarkable the slide path that closed I-70 for nine hours yesterday didn't slide Sunday after being hit with seven Howitzer rounds, yet they went back again yesterday with huge bags of ammonium nitrate dropped from a helicopter to make it go. Amazing work by CAIC and CDOT! The video of the slide embedded in the story is awesome, and terrifying for this guy who drove his family under that monster Monday between the Howitzer and the ammonium nitrate blasting.

On Sunday, Greene blasted the relatively small basin beneath Mount Bethel — northeast of the Eisenhower-Johnson Memorial tunnels near Herman Gulch — with seven rounds from CDOT’s WWII-era Howitzer. Nothing happened.

On Tuesday he dropped a couple of big explosives — 35-pound bags of AN/FO, ammonium nitrate/fuel oil — into the area from a helicopter and it ripped to the ground, burying the highway and closing both the westbound and eastbound lanes for much of the day.
Source: https://coloradosun.com/2019/03/06/colorado-avalanche-i70-mountains-roads/
​

Once again, great reporting by Jason Blevins and the Colorado Sun.

​

 

[palikona]

Wow, it’s going to take awhile for that bike path to fully open this summer.

 

[Tricia]

A new slide, this time trapping a tow truck.
Avalanche closes I-70 between Copper Mountain and Vail, one tow truck caught in slide
The driver of the truck is OK, authorities said

 

[Ron]

theres a gas leak so the closure may be extended.

 

[jmeb]

theres a gas leak so the closure may be extended.

Slide hit the Conoco.

 

[Ron]

Slide hit the Conoco.

CBS news is reporting it severed a natural gas Line near the Conoco. doesn't sound good as far as getting the highway open

 

[Mike King]

The avalanche warning has been raised to Extreme in Summit, Vail, Aspen, and Gunnison zones. The forecast discussion for Aspen says that there's been 1.5-2.0 inches of water in the last 24 hours (some coming in the form of rain), with some areas report 4". The size of avalanches that may occur is very large to historic. It's crazy out there!

Mike

 

[tball]

Wow. Copper is on a delayed opening this morning per the snow report. Another 18" new, with 16 overnight. Holy yikes.

SNOW REPORTER'S UPDATE
March 07 2019 - 05:30 am

18" of new snow to report this morning with 16" of that falling after the lifts closed yesterday! That brings us to 60" in the last week! Today we will continue to see snow fall with another 3"-5" expected during the day. Temperatures will warm to a high of 36F and winds will be westerly at 10 to 20 mph. Get out there and enjoy yet another epic March powder day!

We’ve seen 18” in the last 24 hours and 16” overnight. Due to this snowfall, there are closures and delays in place. Here’s the latest:

• The resort will be on a delayed opening this morning. We will have an estimated time of reopening soon.

• I-70 is closed between Frisco and Vail in both directions. There was an avalanche on Vail Pass this morning that has caused an extended closure.

• CO 91 is closed between Leadville and Copper. This is due to a gas leak at Conoco. This leak has caused an evacuation of the Conoco building but the rest of the resort is not affected at this time.

We will provide more updates as soon as we have them but as of this moment in time, we plan to open the mountain as soon as we possibly can!

As for real-time road information, you can visit cotrip.org for updates.

Source: https://www.coppercolorado.com/the-mountain/conditions-weather/snow-report
​

 

[tball]

9news has a good article up, as they have a reporter stationed in the county:
https://www.9news.com/article/traff...-vail/73-7ee519b9-9aaa-4f4c-b932-16b494d68b3f

There were two slides. One up on Vail Pass that covered the westbound lanes where a tow truck was caught. The other was at the Conoco at the Copper Mountain exit where a natural gas line was ruptured.

I seem to recall the natural gas line runs along the bike path and there is an above ground junction or valve sticking up near the Conoco that must have been taken out. I think those pipes are a ways back from the Conoco, and may be on the other side of the creek behind the Conoco, so the building itself wasn't necessarily hit by the slide.

 

[Mike King]

A-Basin will not open today according to the Summit Daily.