MILLION DOLLAR HWY OURAY COLOL FULL

Broken-down houses still stand here, remnants of a town that in the late 1800s was at least a mile long and housed more than 500 people. Nancy Lofholm: 97, or twitter.IRONTON, Colo. “We’re looking forward to lightening things up around here,” Safranski said. The following weekend is the popular skijoring contest when horses gallop through town pulling skiers. 9 will celebrate the 50th anniversary of the town’s Kendall Mountain Recreation Area with bands, beer, $2 ski passes and cardboard derbies. Silverton residents are heartened that the highway has reopened - even on a partial basis - in time for the town’s two annual winter events that draw hundreds of visitors. There is still a lot of rubble to clear and a 24-foot-tall concrete barrier to build that should stop rocks that escape the netting. 550 avalanche chute.ĬDOT spokeswoman Nancy Shanks said the highway is reopening for the early morning and late afternoon daily periods with three dozen huge metal nets slung over the mountainside to catch rockfall. Safranski said now that the immediate problem is lessened, she wants to see more protective barriers built, like the snowshed erected decades ago at a deadly U.S. Local rock climbers, ski guides and Aaron Brill, in the helicopter from Silverton Mountain, have been working with CDOT. She and other residents have marveled at how more than two dozen workers in helicopters, roped harnesses and loaders have stuck with the dangerous and herculean task of trying to stop a mountain from moving. “We give CDOT all the credit in the world,” town trustee Karla Safranski said. Even before the agency announced it would intermittently reopen the road beginning Friday, Silverton residents gave the agency high marks for the daily maintaining of a difficult stretch of highway. No one is blaming the Colorado Department of Transportation for the lengthy highway closure. “Living in Silverton is better than living in some flat suburb of Chicago any day.” “We’re survivors,” Silverton Town Administrator Brian Carlson said. They were drawn here by mountains, even with their inconveniences. But in Silverton, residents are resilient. “We’re a pretty broke little town right now, so this is tough,” he said. Gas currently costing $2.60 a gallon in Silverton could land above $4.

MILLION DOLLAR HWY OURAY COLOL FULL

“One day last weekend, we had eight people come in all day,” said Manuel Skow, owner of the Kendall Mountain Cafe, where the 26 chairs are often full at lunchtime.ĭale Jaramillo, who runs the Silverton LP Gas company, last week had to pile on another woe when he warned townspeople that the rough winter back east was causing propane prices to spike. Jen Brill, who operates the ski area with her husband, Aaron, said the road closure and the relatively sparse snow before last weekend’s dump had halved their clientele.īusiness owners along the nearly deserted Greene and Blair streets say they lost as much as 90 percent of their customers during the shutdown. The Silverton Mountain ski area has been drawing expert skiers for the past 13 years and was set to have a bang-up year after it was recently named Most Extreme Colorado Experience by Elevation Outdoors Magazine for 2014.īut, in a double whammy, there’s been relatively little snow in Silverton this winter. Silverton had been making it, in big part because of the lure of steep chutes. Digital Replica Edition Home Page Close Menu

Million dollar hwy ouray colol