Stranded travelers contemplate welcoming new year in shelters

DENVER -- Thousands of stranded travelers contemplated the prospect of ringing in the new year at motels and shelters after blowing snow and the risk of avalanches closed the main highway through the Colorado Rockies.

A 60-mile stretch of I-70 was shut down west of Denver, and officials said it would be at least mid-afternoon Monday before it opened. They were waiting for 70 mph gusts to die down so they could use low-yield explosives to break the snow loose and avert avalanches.

In the meantime, the champagne had to wait.

"I've got some in the car, but it's probably frozen by now," said Ken Simons of Grand Junction. He and his wife were trying to get to Denver for New Year's when the closing of the highway forced them and more than 2,000 others to spend Sunday night in shelters.

With no definite word on when they could hit the road again, some faced the prospect of welcoming 2008 on a cot in a school gymnasium.

Liquor stores did a brisk business.

"We've definitely seen a rush," said John Will of Antler's Discount Liquor in Frisco. "People are coming in complaining that they are stuck" or caught in slow-moving traffic.

Leaha Widrowicz was trying to get back to Fort Lauderdale, Fla., with her boyfriend and his mother after a skiing trip but had to spend the night in Frisco, missing their midnight flight from Denver International Airport.

"We're not even thinking of New Year's right now," Widrowicz said. "We are just trying to get home to family."

High winds piled deep snow into more than two dozen narrow ravines in the mountainsides -- known as avalanche chutes -- raising the danger of deadly avalanches cascading onto I-70. Blowing snow reduced visibility to nearly zero.

At the Eisenhower Tunnel, where the interstate passes under the Continental Divide at 11,000 feet above sea level, wind gusts reached 70 mph, keeping crews from clearing the avalanche chutes.

"That is basically the problem we are having right now," Colorado Department of Transportation spokesman John Nelson said. "It's not snowing -- it's blowing snow."

While many people took advantage of seven Red Cross shelters in schools and recreation centers, others relied on the kindness of strangers.

Brian Jerry of Colorado Springs said people he had never met before let him stay in their Silverthorne home because motels were full. "We called the local Quality Inn, and they basically laughed at us," Jerry said.

I-70 is the main route between Denver and many of the state's major ski resorts. The closing of the road could hurt ski business during the lucrative holiday season.

Blowing snow and low visibility also kept three other mountain passes closed Monday: U.S. 40 over Berthoud Pass, U.S. 6 over Loveland Pass and U.S. 550 over Red Mountain Pass.