Avalanche
Red Mountain Pass along US 550 reopened on Friday more than two weeks after avalanches left an “unprecedented” amount of snow and debris on the road, the Colorado Department of Transportation said. Lisa Schwantes, the spokeswoman for the Colorado Department of Transportation, said the route between Silverton and Ouray was cleared after avalanches buried the road in up to 60 feet of snow.
Red Mountain Pass closed March 3. Earlier last week, CDOT said it could take another two weeks to get the pass opened. But Schwantes said crews worked 24/7 to open it sooner. Several avalanches caused “an extensive amount” of debris, limbs, and trees that needed to be cleared from the road.
“They just hammered it out,” she told The Journal.
Chain laws are in effect for all vehicles traveling the pass. Schwantes said the top of the pass is icy and snow-packed, and lower elevations are wet and slushy.
I met a 50 yr old woman who was running a snowplow for CoDot on Red Mountain Pass when an avalanche hit the truck and knocked her off the cliff into the abyss. They came and got her -survived but had 22 broken bones. It took over 2 years of multiple surgeries to fix her up. Seems somewhat fine now but limps a bit with a cane.