DENVER (KDVR) — Snow in the mountains on Friday closed parts of Interstate 70 in Vail Pass. This comes as Spring Break approaches, a busy time of year for out-of-state visitors who may not be as used to driving in snowy conditions.
At the Eisenhower Tunnel, traffic was moving smoothly throughout the afternoon, only stopping briefly to allow hazmat vehicles through. On the west side of the tunnel in Frisco, Ryan Henderson is enjoying his first ski trip in Colorado.
“I loved it. I had my first jump today,” said Henderson.
A Seattle native, he said this is his first time venturing out of the Denver area to ski at Keystone. Snow in the Pacific Northwest, he said, not quite like what Summit County saw on Friday.
“We do have a big car, so it’s nice to keep it weighted down but yeah, I’m taking it slow,” he said.
On the other end of the spectrum, Connor Erickson and his friends are well versed in driving through snow, they’re from Minnesota. Coming back to Frisco from Vail, they just missed the lane closure.
“There was like a Camry, a semi, a bunch of cars stalled and can’t make their way up the pass. So we were able to get our way around, which is nice,” said Erickson.
As they prepare to head back to the airport in Denver in the next couple days, he said they’re hoping to avoid some of the Spring Breakers they saw today.
“Saw some plates from Texas, who knows if they’re rentals, but you could tell they weren’t used to driving in the mountains,” said Erickson.
The Colorado Department of Transportation told drivers, for the time being, to expect delays when driving on I-70 in the mountains, thanks to that Spring Break traffic both from in and out of state.