Highway crews had opened all regional mountain passes by Friday afternoon.
Red Mountain Pass on U.S. Highway 550 was the last to reopen, about 4:30 p.m. Cumbres Pass on Colorado Highway 17 opened shortly before that, but chain laws remain in effect on both passes.
Wolf Creek Pass opened about 12:30 p.m. Friday, after being closed for nearly 30 hours by a storm that dropped 44 inches of snow.
Red Mountain and Wolf Creek passes had been closed since about 5 a.m. Thursday.
Crews started working on avalanche mitigation on Wolf Creek Pass at 7 a.m. Friday and finished by mid-day, said Lisa Schwantes, spokeswoman for the Colorado Department of Transportation. The mountain received a foot of snow overnight, she said.
CDOT crews triggered three avalanches on the pass Thursday before stopping work because of dangerous conditions. As they left the area, a natural avalanche buried a 200-foot stretch of road with 6-12 feet of snow.
On U.S. Highway 550, Coal Bank and Molas passes opened Friday morning following avalanche control work, and chain laws were lifted shortly before 3 p.m.
Coal Bank received 29.5 inches of snow, Molas Pass received 26 inches and Red Mountain Pass received 18 inches, said Michael Charnick a meteorologist with the National Weather Service.
Another storm expected to arrive Saturday could bring an inch of snow to the mountains over the weekend, and is expected to clear out on Tuesday, Charnick said.
Durango could see some rain from the storm, but the town is unlikely to see much precipitation. The highest chance for precipitation will be Monday afternoon and evening.
The rain that Durango has seen in recent weeks is not necessarily unusual, he said.
“Every storm is different and has it’s own characteristics,” he said.
Durango has just not had cold enough air for snow.
mshinn@durangoherald.com
