Our Snowbound Adventure on I-70 on March 13-14, 2024
Log written by Karen Saunders
We left Golden Peak at Vail at 3:30 pm promptly Wednesday afternoon. The ski conditions were average with overcast skies and light snow. The wind and snow picked up right before we left. The roads were wet, not snow packed. At 3:45 pm traffic was stopped going up Vail pass. We waited 2 hours. We were told it’s stopped because of a stalled vehicle(s).
Finally, traffic started moving but our bus doesn’t move forward. Instead, our bus slides sideways and backwards. By this time there is probably an inch or two of snow on the road. After much effort our bus driver, our Driver tells us the transmission has overheated. She turns off the bus. Jo Ellen Ferris says she has AAA insurance. I say I do too! Sabrina calls for a tow and a mechanic, but says the other bus won’t be here until 9:30 pm.
We have a bathroom in the back of the bus but now it is pitch black. So, we use the flashlight feature on our phones. “It’s like camping” I say.
We wait another two hours and see a procession of “Mountain Recovery” tow trucks and other specialty trucks squeeze by between the two lanes of traffic. Our cute tow truck driver arrives and pulls us 3 miles up the pass to where we are supposed to meet our replacement bus in an area where semi-trucks park off the road.
A cameraman from the Weather channel pokes his head in our bus and videotapes our group and says good luck! We wait an hour and hear that I-70 is closed going west. That means our replacement bus will never reach us. So, our Driver starts the engine and says she will “try” to drive us to Georgetown to meet the replacement bus there. The engine starts and we’re moving!
We slowly make progress down Vail pass and through the Eisenhower tunnel, until we’re just 2 miles from Georgetown. Then traffic is stopped. We wait for 1 hour. Then the driver of the semi next to us jumps out decides to put his chains on, right NOW, right in the middle of the highway! He also gets chains out for another truck in front of him. And he’s wearing sneakers!
We’re told there is a multiple vehicle crash 1 mile ahead. We see another procession of “Mountain Recovery” tow trucks squeeze by us. Finally, after another hour we start moving and view a sea of tow trucks and mangled cars and semi-trucks in every direction in the west bound lanes.
Our Driver tells us she has to stop in Idaho Springs to change drivers because she’s been on the job too long. The mechanic from Arrow will also meet us there. So, we pull off the highway and immediately get stuck trying to make a tight uphill turn in 6” of snow that has piled up on the side road. It’s around 10:30 pm.
I text Tom an update and he texts back “It’s the bus ride from Hell.” He says he’s going to bed, and he’ll “leave the light on for me!”
The mechanic from Arrow arrives and helps us get unstuck by shoveling snow out from around the tires. Finally, we pull up next to the replacement bus on a street in Idaho Springs and switch drivers at 11:00 pm. We stay on the same bus. But what is our fuel level? I’m worried.
We leave Idaho Springs and we immediately enter a tunnel. Traffic stops and we sit in the tunnel for an hour. It is midnight. I think we are all going to die from carbon monoxide poisoning. We move 100 feet and are no longer in the tunnel, we’re back on I-70. Then we wait again.
We are still waiting after 7.5 more hours, just idling all night. Some of us try to sleep, but it is difficult. Some have put coats on because it is chilly. I’m awake all night. I never see any eastbound snow plows come by, but I do see tow trucks and westbound plows after 6:00 am. The last eastbound snow plow I saw was at 5:30 pm last night on Vail pass.
Did you know I-70 is also the “Grand Army of the Republic Highway?” That’s the name that appears on Google maps on my iphone for I-70.
It’s 6:00 am. Now we are out of water and almost out of toilet paper!! We are all bored, anxious and are looking for answers. We Google and call our friends and family to help. How long will we be stranded here? Where are the plows? Is I-70 closed, if so when will it be open? The lack of information and communication is just awful. Beckie Crozier gives Bette Davis the name of a reporter at KDVR channel 31 and Bette calls the station.
Bette is interviewed on Fox 31 news via FaceTime to tell the world about our situation, and ask some questions. She sends video and photos.
Mary Wagner calls CDOT and asks more questions but doesn’t get any solid answers. She also asks if someone can come by and deliver water. She’s told somebody may, but CDOT has other more pressing matters to attend to. Mary is also interviewed by the Colorado Sun.
Sunrise. We are still waiting. We see the devastation of the storm and exit the bus to fill baggies and bottles with snow. We see a gas station and convenience store tantalizingly close but on the opposite side of the freeway.
Our first driver is in the mechanic’s truck behind us. She boards our bus to check on us and we tell her we are out of food and water. She says she will try to get that to us. A little while later she comes back and said she managed to get off the highway and around to a store to get bottles of water, TP and chips for us!!
Unfortunately, now the toilet is full. It’s time to make yellow snow!
Brenda Djorup announces 9 News wants to interview us! They saw channel 31’s 7:00 am broadcast and want their own scoop on our story. Now our friends and relatives are texting and calling us to say they saw our story on the news.
To pass the time, some ladies wrote letters to Gov. Polis to complain about the lack of communication and the lack of adherence to chain laws by semi-truck drivers. One lady wrote a poem and sang a song about our saga.
Brenda asks the reporters to help us and they say tow trucks will towing plows one by one over Floyd Hill to plow our side of the highway! Bette is interviewed by 7 News. The media frenzy is snowballing, pun intended! Now Lester Holt and Good Morning America want in on our story. The power of the voice. They heard our roar!!!
We spot a couple of CDOT trucks over on the service road doing nothing but sitting there, for hours! We’ve documented them watching us. It’s 11:00 am. It’s been 12 hours since the bus drivers switched. Now Sabrina is back in the driver’s seat.
Fifteen minutes later we are moving forward but slowly. We were parked in that spot about a mile east of Idaho Springs for about 11 hours. We’re going past stuck semis littering the road. I see the buffalo hunkered down under trees on Floyd Hill.
We arrive at Woolly Mammoth lot at 12:30. Cars were buried under drifts of 3 to 4 feet of snow. Once we arrive in Denver the roads and traffic appear clear. The pavement is wet, not snow packed.
We made it to our last stop at Bethany Lutheran church at 1:15 pm, nearly 22 hours after we left Vail. Exhausted but safe. Home at last.
