Wednesday, June 11, 2008

Colorado: Cottonwood Pass remains closed


Cottonwood Pass remains closed
A cold, stiff breeze and towering piles of dirty snow are all that remain of a "bitter, cold and nasty" winter on Cottonwood Pass, CR 306.

"It was one of the worst snow years I've seen up here in a long time," Gunnison County road and bridge crew member Jim Kent said as he surveyed the area from atop 12,126-foot Cottonwood Pass Tuesday morning.

The pass has been closed to traffic all winter and will remain closed until Thursday morning at the earliest, officials said.

Although the road is clear of snow from the foot of the pass to the summit on the Chaffee and Gunnison county sides, a monumental snow cornice east of the summit is posed above the road possibly in danger of falling, officials said.

Under a sunny sky, a convoy of Colorado Department of Transportation workers and county road and bridge crew members drove CR 306 to below the cornice.

"We blasted the snow attempting to knock it loose, but it's pretty solid and we didn't have much snow come loose and fall," Joe Nelson, Chaffee County road and bridge supervisor, told The Mountain Mail Tuesday after the blasting.

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