In January 2007, Felicia, Kendra, Susie, Larry & I flew to Denver and then drove at night in the hard falling snow to up to Winter Park, Colorado. The temperature was about -6 degrees F in Denver, and our plane was three hours late getting into Denver, but skiers have to be tough to get to where the new snow is.
Felicia had been freaking out because the weekend before, there had been a very big avalanche at Berthoud Pass that swept 2 cars off of the mountain. We had to go through Berthoud Pass to get to Winter Park but thanks to the skilled driving of me?, we got through without a problem and got to our hotel at 1 AM.
Uncle Larry and Aunt Susie are laughing even though the plane was late and we were in danger of getting our flight to Denver cancelled because of bad snow and below zero temperatures
Avalanche near 11,000-foot pass buries cars in Colorado
POSTED: 2:55 p.m. EST, January 6, 2007
• Seven people rescued so far, one goes to hospital
• Avalanche forced cars off U.S. 40, Colorado highway official says
• Happened 60 miles west of Denver on main route to ski area Winter Park
• Crews said it was the largest avalanche they had ever seen
DENVER, Colorado (AP) — A huge avalanche buried cars Saturday and may have pushed others over the edge of U.S. 40 near 11,307-foot-high Berthoud Pass, Colorado highway officials said.
“Our crews said it was the largest they have ever seen. It took three paths,” said Stacey Stegman, spokeswoman for the Colorado Department of Transportation. Seven people had been rescued; one was taken to a hospital, Stegman said.
The slide buried at least two cars, state Patrolman Eric Wynn told CNN. Crews were looking for other vehicles, including any that may have gone off the road, Stegman said.
The avalanche was described as 100 feet wide and 15 feet deep.
The area usually has slides 2 to 3 feet deep, Stegman told CNN. “This is a tremendous amount of snow to come down the mountain for us,” she said. Three snowstorms in as many weeks have dumped more than 4 feet of snow on parts of Colorado.
Berthoud Pass is the main route to Winter Park, one of Colorado’s largest ski areas. Stegman said the late-morning timing meant most traffic headed to the ski area had already passed. “If it would’ve happened just a couple of hours earlier, this would’ve been a very different situation,” she told CNN.
I was so proud of Kendra! – she had been to school for 2 days at Steamboat Springs, Colorado before this, and after going to school for 1 day in Winter Park she went up the lift twice with me at the end of the day, got off the lift and skied down all by herself!
Felicia, Susie, and Kendra after just getting off the lift. Kendra has a helmet and no poles, but she can turn, stop, put her ski back on if it falls off and she is hard to keep up with now.
I think Felicia was more scared about Kendra skiing than Kendra was.
All of the girls skied past me and Kendra.
Kendra and Susie on the ski lift. Larry hurt his knee and could not ski at all our second day, so we all took turns riding up with Kendra.
Kendra and Susie getting off the ski lift. To me, this is the hardest part of skiing and Kendra did it about a dozen times during this trip. I think she is going to be a pro.
Bobby Lee had better watch out, I have a new ski partner who has more energy than both of us put together.