When you drive to Breckenridge from Denver and go by way of incredibly scenic Loveland Pass instead of Eisenhower tunnel, a literal bore, then you will hear cannons firing right near the roadside. This is to induce avalanches for the protection of off-trail skiers and other hikers. Making the choice for the pass adds considerably to your time, but who's in a hurry? The photo opportunities are astounding. And they're right there. Elevation 11,990 feet on the Continental Divide. It is truly spectacular. Obviously take chains, duh. The tunnel speeds you past the best points of interest.
A couple of avalanches closed down parts of Interstate 70 in Colorado on Sunday. Luckily, authorities say, no one was trapped or injured. https://t.co/Qq53AGVmKK pic.twitter.com/zOD8SqtgAQ— ABC News (@ABC) March 4, 2019
15 comments:
wow that's really cool. *I would have stopped a bit sooner while I was peeing my pants.*
Wild video. A little situational awareness goes a long way. Those people got really lucky!
The avalanche (rock, rock, rock) is supposed to be a winning gambit in rock paper scissors.
Another view from the other side of the highway.
that one = soiled diaper. oops. sorry!
Brian Coffin was headed west on the highway when the second slide came down and covered the eastbound lanes.
LOL - perfect name!
"The two avalanches happened between Copper Mountain and Frisco. Interstate 70 was closed down for several hours near Officer's Gulch Sunday afternoon after one of those slides covered the highway in snow."
Two! in the same area. I know right where that is - there's a short drive between Frisco and Copper Mountain, before you go up over Vail pass. (west bound)
Personally, I never found the Eisenhower Tunnel to be a bore. More like my heart was in my mouth, both climbing up to it and swooshing down. I always made a point of staying in the slow lane but surprise! there is no slow lane, do the speed limit and you're tail gated both up and down.
It's worse than that on Sunday afternoons/evening driving back to Denver. This applies to mostly men, skiers returning home after a weekend of skiing are still in ski-mode when driving so it's S-curves going fast all the way down in their automobiles. Shush, shush, shush, shush, shush, all the way down. We punks xxxxxx I meant to say those punks are incorrigible .
We've been having successive waves of storms -- what weather people call "atmospheric rivers." The mountain snowpack here is at a 40 year high. Another big atmospheric river is supposed to hit this week and then move east.
It's dangerous out there.
Almost like the road from Cheyenne to Laramie where the wind blows 18-wheelers over.
I usually took I-25 north to I-80 and followed that west to Donner pass. I only went through the Eisenhower tunnel once, and since I was driving my '57 GMC towing a trailer at the time, I was definitely in the slow lane.
Driving back to Denver on a Sunday evening after skiing is not really driving. It's more like parking.
I thought the ski traffic was bad in the 80's. I can imagine it's only gotten worse.
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