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Road Rage: Ski-Town Traffic Troubles

As traffic and frustration increase on mountain highways, many skiers are rethinking how—and when—they travel to the slopes.

by Martin Forstenzer, Contributor, SKI Magazine

Skiers who regularly drive from Denver up I-70 to their favorite resort know the dreaded feeling. Rounding a scenic corner, they’re confronted with a gridlock of cars, sometimes backed up for miles. Even when the mountain highway is fender-bender free, weekend traffic between Denver and the slopes has become so heavy that normal driving times are often double or longer.

Traffic congestion between urban areas and ski resorts is becoming an increasingly intractable problem throughout North America, but no roadway suffers ski congestion more than Colorado’s I-70. The main route from Denver to many of the state’s top ski areas—including Vail, Breckenridge, Copper Mountain and Aspen—curves, climbs and drops abruptly, and it’s usually jammed with big rigs carrying loads across the state. Traffic has become so stifling that some Denver skiers have quit skiing on weekends. A few have quit altogether.

Kent Druckenmiller, who grew up in Denver, doesn’t ski on weekends anymore. “It took me eight hours to get home one time,” he says. “And even on weekdays it’s stop-and-go.” His new strategy: “I get up earlier than I should and leave earlier than I should to avoid the delays”…

Read the full article here: http://www.skinet.com/travel/2008-12/road-rage-ski-town-traffic-troubles