Denver I-70 on Sunday

[johnnash]

Quick question for some Denver area FTOLers. My wife and I will be skiing in Summit/ Vail this week, and we're planning on skiing Sunday before catching our flight out of Denver at 6PM. I know I-70 can be a bear Sunday afternoon, but how much of a bear? We haven't decided where to ski Sunday (and this decision will hinge partially on the I-70 question), but if we were for example at Copper, when should we leave in order to arrive at the Denver airport at 4:30ish? If we were at Vail, should we allow time for delays between there and Copper (over and above the usual driving time)?

Thanks for any advice!

 

[EMSC]

Quick question for some Denver area FTOLers. My wife and I will be skiing in Summit/ Vail this week, and we're planning on skiing Sunday before catching our flight out of Denver at 6PM. I know I-70 can be a bear Sunday afternoon, but how much of a bear? We haven't decided where to ski Sunday (and this decision will hinge partially on the I-70 question), but if we were for example at Copper, when should we leave in order to arrive at the Denver airport at 4:30ish? If we were at Vail, should we allow time for delays between there and Copper (over and above the usual driving time)?

Thanks for any advice!

Two very different options to plan for. With a snow storm and without.

Without storms: No traffic issues on Vail pass or through the tunnels. Possible(probable?) traffic problems can arise anywhere from roughly Silver Plume/Georgetown until the short tunnels just east of Idaho Springs. Traffic can start backing up anywhere in that area as early as ~2:30pm with the worst being from 3:30-7pm. I say probable backups since the snow has been very good in the mtns so far and will likely pull a fair amount of front rangers up there even though we're not quite in 'prime' season yet. Delay can be anywhere from 10 min to an hour+ or so depending on the weekend and time of day (10 minutes at the start of the issues or on a relatively 'slow' day; an hour of delay easily during prime drive time at 4pm on a big weekend, etc...).

With storms: I would not ski in Vail if there is a decently large storm going on (Couple of inches of light snow, not a big prob; big storm is a problem). Vail pass closes MUCH faster than other passes in the area. Loveland pass can close easily as well, but that's primarily because CDOT knows everyone can go through the tunnels instead (even if it adds a few miles for some). Though if Loveland pass closes they stop traffic once an hour at the tunnels to let hazardous cargo trucks through. In that case you're in potentially bad traffic all the way from Dillon (if it's snowing all the way to Denver - which it often is NOT).

Days that I need to be back in Denver by mid-afternoon, I typically hit Abasin or Loveland so I can ski as late as possible, usually trying to be on the road by 2pm. Copper, being on the Interstate, is reasonable too, esp in good weather. Though you add 20 minutes of driving and lose 20 minutes of skiing compared to say Loveland.

 

[johnnash]

Thanks very much, EMSC. That's quite detailed and helpful. I guess we should really think about Loveland, especially if weather is a concern. We've driven by it many times, but we've never skied there.

 

[rfarren]

Thanks very much, EMSC. That's quite detailed and helpful. I guess we should really think about Loveland, especially if weather is a concern. We've driven by it many times, but we've never skied there.

I did Loveland 2 years ago the day I needed to leave. We left around 3:00 on a sunday and, even so, experienced significant traffic going into denver. The weather was good too. But it was also right after a pretty big storm hit on friday and saturday. Loveland was a nice mountain, and not terribly crowded, and had plenty of fun terrain.

 

[EMSC]

We left around 3:00 on a sunday and, even so, experienced significant traffic going into denver

Yep the "around" part will get you, especially by 3... Need to be ON the road by ~2pm to beat the crunch in my experience... OR, for us locals, just ski till 4pm and then hang out and have dinner... The jams are usually clear or close to it by 7pm (unless it's snowing).