Stories in this list received the most page views on SummitDaily.com from Nov. 16-22. 

1. Colorado transportation officials launch new I-70 land page as a ‘one-stop shop’ for drivers this winter

The Colorado Department of Transportation has launched a new landing page with information to help drivers plan for trips along the Interstate 70 mountain corridor.

CDOT communications manager Stacia Sellers described driving on the I-70 mountain corridor as “a much different driving experience” than on most other roads, due to the corridor’s high elevation and the potential for extreme weather in the mountains.

That’s why the new landing page, available at CODOT.gov/travel/i70mountain, includes all the information drivers might need to travel along I-70. Sellers suggested that anyone who regularly drives I-70 bookmark the webpage for easy access through the winter.

— Ryan Spencer, Nov. 18

2. Notice the Blue River seemingly disappear through Breckenridge this fall? Here’s what’s going on. 

No, there is not a stretch of the Blue River in Breckenridge that just disappeared this fall — though it might have looked that way. 

Some might have noticed a stretch of the Blue River from the outflow of the dredge pond near Ollie’s Pub & Grub to the bridge on Ski Hill Road appeared dry this fall while part of the river that flows into the dredge pond itself seemed fine. 

Town staff members said it’s not an unusual occurrence. 

“That is something that we’ve experienced several times, (and in) some cases, several times a year,” Breckenridge Public Work Director James Phelps said, noting it can happen in the fall and in the spring before runoff season starts.

The reason the appearance of the water inflowing to the pond differs from that outflowing to the pond is due to a river liner the town placed near the outflow of the dredge pond below the surface, he said. When water goes to the outflow, the liner can cause it to get subterranean to the riverbed. He said the water is still in the channel even though it can’t be seen. The water then reemerges by the Ski Hill Road bridge. 

— Kit Geary, Nov. 17

3. With bridges starting to go up, drivers on I-70 will see ‘magnitude and size’ of $900 million Floyd Hill Project

The Colorado Department of Transportation is moving mountains — literally — as part of a $900 million project to rebuild an 8-mile section of Interstate 70 to improve safety and travel time reliability.

Since October last year, crews working on the Floyd Hill Project have completed more than 135 rock blasts, removing more than 600,000 tons of material, an amount equal to the weight of 20 Statues of Liberty, according to the transportation department.

Now, work has begun to build new interstate bridges with gentler, safer curves through the widened canyon that is a main thoroughfare for those traveling between Denver and the mountains.

“Over the next four to six months, people are going to start to see where the new alignment is going to go,” said Matt Hogan, the project manager for Kraemer North America, the general contractor on the Floyd Hill Project. “They’re going to start to realize the magnitude and the size of the project, and hopefully really start to envision the future of what driving on this mountain corridor is going to be.”

— Ryan Spencer, Nov. 14

4. Tramway Safety Board provides details on Keystone chairlift fall

One snowboarder fell off the Montezuma Express chairlift around 1:30 p.m. on Nov. 13 and was transported to the hospital, according to Lee Rasizer, a public information officer for the Colorado Passenger Tramway Safety Board.

Keystone Resort filed an incident report with the safety board the day of the fall, Rasizer wrote in an email, which it is required to do when someone falls outside of the loading or unloading zone and injuries are involved.

The incident report attributed the fall to skier error and stated it was not related to any mechanical failure, Rasizer wrote, meaning the board will not be producing its own report.

Rasizer wrote that the snowboarder fell about 35 feet while between towers four and five of the Montezuma Express chairlift. The lift stopped at the request of ski patrol “immediately,” Rasizer wrote, and reopened about 27 minutes later after lift maintenance staff completed an inspection.

— Summit Daily News staff, Nov. 20

5. Colorado Supreme Court to consider Vail Resorts’ liability waiver in case involving guest hit by snowmobile in Breckenridge

The Colorado Supreme Court has agreed to hear a case that could further define the extent to which liability waivers protect ski resorts from negligence claims brought by customers who are injured at the resort.

John Litterer v. Vail Summit Resort Inc., a case involving negligence claims brought by a Texas snowboarder who collided with a snowmobile driven by an employee at Breckenridge Ski Resort in 2020, has been granted certiorari by the state’s highest court.

That means at least three of the seven justices on the Supreme Court have agreed to review the case, which had previously been dismissed by the Summit County District Court and Colorado Court of Appeals. Both lower courts had determined that Litterer gave up his claims to sue when he signed liability waivers when purchasing an Epic Pass.

Vail Summit Resort Inc. is a subsidiary of Vail Resorts, the company that owns the Epic Pass, six ski resorts in Colorado and dozens of other resorts across the U.S., Canada, Australia and Switzerland. A spokesperson for Breckenridge Ski Resort and Vail Resorts declined to comment on ongoing litigation.

Joseph Bloch, the attorney representing Litterer, said in a news release that the legal landscape for those injured at ski resorts has changed since the Colorado Supreme Court’s “groundbreaking” decision in Miller v. Crested Butte last year. The 5-2 decision determined that liability waivers that skiers and snowboarders must agree to when purchasing a pass do not protect resorts when they are violating state laws or regulations.

— Ryan Spencer, Nov. 19