Jerry McBride/Durango Herald<br><br>01-09-17- Durango- A driver turns around at the road closed gate on U.S. Highway 550 a few miles south of Coal Bank Pass on Monday afternoon.
Stephen Simms, a snowplow driver with the Colorado Department of Transportation, lifts the road-closed gate on U.S. Highway 550 on Monday afternoon south of Coal Bank Pass after escorting cars that were between the closed gates. Simms quickly put down the gate after traffic passed.
Jerry McBride/Durango Herald
It was near whiteout conditions on U.S. Highway 550 south of Purgatory Resort on Monday afternoon. Travel conditions aren’t expected to improve significantly on Tuesday.
Jerry McBride/Durango Herald
A vehicle follows a La Plata County Sheriff’s Office vehicle down ice-covered County Road 125 south of Durango after county plows put down gravel. More than 20 vehicles were stranded Monday morning by the icy conditions. Traffic was diverted onto the road after a crash briefly closed U.S. Highway 160 west of Durango.
Jerry McBride/Durango Herald
Hesperus Hill west of Durango was closed for about 30 minutes Monday morning for a crash and icy road conditions.
Shaun Stanley/Durango Herald
Edgar Ortiz of El Paso, Texas, puts cables on his car as Jon Chapman looks on Monday afternoon on U.S. Highway 550 north of Purgatory Resort.
Jerry McBride/Durango Herald
Chance is a lucky dog out on a brisk walk with a neighbor, who did not want to be identified, on County Road 120 on Monday. Photo by Jerry McBride/Durango Herald
A fire crew responds Monday to the scene of an overturned diesel tanker truck involved in a wind-related crash, with the tanker spilling about 2,000 gallons of diesel along Interstate 70 near Gypsum, in western Colorado High winds have overturned some large vehicles and damaged buildings in the Colorado Springs area, while ice is making travel dangerous in western Colorado. Photo by Randy McIntosh/CDOT via AP
A Colorado Department of Transportation snowplow heads east Monday on U.S. Highway 160 on the west side of Durango after working to clear westbound U.S. 160 of ice that caused a crash that briefly forced the closure of the road. Photo by Shaun Stanley/Durango Herald
Calvary Baptist Church senior pastor Kyle Sullivan, right, embraces church attendee Lynn Monday on Monday after high winds blew off a portion of the roof of the church sanctuary in Colorado Springs. High winds have overturned some large vehicles and damaged buildings in the Colorado Springs area. Photo by Mark Reis/The Gazette via AP
A La Plata County snowplow spreads gravel Monday morning on ice-covered County Road 125 south of Durango after at least 20 cars were stranded. Traffic was diverted onto the road after a crash closed U.S. Highway 160 west of Durango. Photo by Jerry McBride/Durango Herald
High winds toppled a tree into the street and on top of a parked car Monday in the 500 block of North Walnut Street in Colorado Springs. Photo by Mark Reis/The Gazette via AP
Snow falls on the La Plata Mountains west of Durango on Monday as rains soak into the ground in the lower elevation near Hesperus. Photo by Jerry McBride/Durango Herald
While drivers had to deal with snow and icy roads at high elevations on Monday morning motorists on U.S. Highway 550 in the Animas Valley drove in rain. Photo by Jerry McBride/Durango Herald
A vehicle follows a La Plata County Sheriff’s Office vehicle down ice-covered County Road 125 south of Durango after county plows spread gravel Monday morning after at least 20 cars became stranded. Traffic was diverted onto the road after a crash closed U.S. Highway 160 west of Durango. Photo by Jerry McBride/Durango Herald
A La Plata County snowplow spread gravel on ice-covered County Road 125 south of Durango on Monday morning after at least 20 cars became stranded. Traffic was diverted onto the road after a crash closed U.S. Highway 160 west of Durango. Photo by Jerry McBride/Durango Herald
A snowman built on the side of Park Avenue seems to mock those trying to commute Monday morning after freezing rain created slick conditions on Durango’s roads and sidewalks. Photo by Shaun Stanley/Durango Herald
A skier goes up Hesperus Ski Area on Monday. Photo by Jerry McBride/Durango Herald
A Colorado Springs Police Department officer battles the wind and helps someone into his police cruiser early Monday in Colorado Springs. Destructive winds blew dust and debris during rush hour traffic. Photo by Jerilee Bennett/The Gazette via AP
A rolled semitrailer slows Interstate 25 in the southbound lanes just north of the South Academy Boulevard exit Monday in Colorado Springs. Photo by Mark Reis/The Gazette via AP
A large tree is uprooted on Main Street in Security, Colorado, on Monday when the Pikes Peak region was hit hard with high winds. Hurricane-force wind gusts knocked over trucks, sent roof shingles flying and downed powerlines in the Colorado Springs, while a tanker truck overturned on an icy stretch of Interstate 70 in the mountains. Photo by Jerilee Bennett/The Gazette via AP
Vietnam veteran Dean Byrne uses his hacksaw to try to remove branches from the massive tree that upended his World War II era Jeep in his front yard Monday on Main Street in Security, south of Colorado Springs. He was trying to remove a few branches to be able to get his truck out of his garage. The Pikes Peak region was hit with destructive winds. Photo by Jerilee Bennett/The Gazette via AP
Icy conditions were expected to persist for a second day Tuesday morning around Durango, while heavy snow loads in the high country will contribute to avalanche danger.
A backcountry skier triggered an avalanche that covered a 200-foot section of road with 8 feet of snow on U.S. Highway 550 in the Lime Creek area, between Coal Bank and Molas passes, said Lisa Schwantes, spokeswoman for the Colorado Department of Transportation. The avalanche was reported about 1:50 p.m., and the highway was officially closed about 2:25 p.m.
“A skier was caught in the slide but was able to get free,” Schwantes said. “No injuries were reported, and no vehicles were involved in the slide.”
A 45-mile corridor between Coal Bank Pass and Ouray was closed Monday night, and it will remain closed Tuesday morning for avalanche-control work, Schwantes said.
“We are getting heavy, significant snowfall,” she said.
Freezing rain made for a slick morning commute Monday in and around Durango, causing several traffic crashes and dozens of cars to slide off roads.
Pedestrians had an equally difficult time navigating city sidewalks iced over from the sleet-like rain and cold morning temperatures. Kroegers Ace Hardware in Durango said customers were streaming in to buy bags of Ice Melt.
According to scanner traffic, someone was seen ice skating on a county road, but efforts to confirm the report were unsuccessful.
The snowline was about 7,500 feet in elevation Monday; by comparison, Durango is at 6,512 feet.
La Plata County Road and Bridge crews began sanding at 3 a.m., but they were unable to keep up with deteriorating conditions, said Megan Graham, spokeswoman for the county.
“The short answer is all county roads are in bad shape,” she said about 9 a.m. “Everything paved is black ice.” She said gravel roads were “blue ice.”
“The conditions are beyond what we’re able to respond to with the resources that we have,” Graham said. “They’re trying to get ahead of it.”
The county’s entire road system, all 653 miles of it, has suffered “significant degradation” as a result of a series of moisture-laden storms that began prior to Christmas Day and have persisted into January, the county said in a news release Monday.
Plow and grading crews have been working morning and evening to address the snow and ice, but gravel and asphalt roads are developing potholes and washboard surfaces, the release says.
“Overall, conditions are well below any satisfactory level we try to provide,” said Doyle Villers, road maintenance supervisor for the county. “As soon as we get a break in the weather, crews will immediately begin grading gravel roads and repair potholes on asphalt.”
The county plans to take a “worst-first” approach to making repairs.
“We know your roads are rough, and we are doing everything we can to schedule repairing them, but Mother Nature isn’t cooperating,” Villers said.
U.S. Highway 160 west of Durango, from city limits to Hesperus, was closed from about 7:55 to 8:25 a.m. Monday for several crashes and icy road conditions.
“This particular storm was quite unusual,” Schwantes said. “It’s not the norm for us to be receiving the ice storm advisory that we received and the freezing rain that we received early this morning. As fast as we could get the sand on the road, the rain was washing it away or was freezing right on top of the sand.”
Surface temperatures stayed above freezing at the Durango-La Plata County Airport, but United Airline flights from Denver were delayed as a result of issues in Denver, said Tony Vicari, interim director of the Durango airport. Deicing of planes also caused minor delays, he said.
Chain laws were in effect for commercial vehicles on Wolf Creek Pass.
A mix of rain and snow is expected to continue through Monday night in Durango, said Megan Stakehouse, meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Grand Junction.
“It’s still pretty balmy down there,” she said. “... A lot of the moisture is being pulled in from the south, so that keeps it more mild than if it was dropping down straight into the Great Basin from the Pacific Northwest.”
Forecasters predict a break in the moisture Tuesday, another surge of moisture Wednesday, another break on Thursday and more precipitation Friday.
“It’s still looking unsettled,” Stakehouse said. “But it is looking like the weekend should be clearing out, so that will be a nice break for everyone.”
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