{"id":35106,"date":"2023-03-23T03:02:01","date_gmt":"2023-03-23T09:02:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/silverton-is-snowed-in-with-extreme-avalanche-danger-in-the-mountains\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T02:22:59","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T08:22:59","slug":"silverton-is-snowed-in-with-extreme-avalanche-danger-in-the-mountains","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/silverton-is-snowed-in-with-extreme-avalanche-danger-in-the-mountains\/","title":{"rendered":"Silverton is snowed-in with \u2018extreme\u2019 avalanche danger in the mountains"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Snow
Snow piles up near Silverton buildings Tuesday. The avalanche danger was rated as \u201cextreme.\u201d U.S. Highway 550 mountain passes have been closed since 5 p.m. Tuesday. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

The town of Silverton has been snowed in since Tuesday evening when the Colorado Department of Transportation closed U.S. Highway 550 over Coal Bank, Molas and Red Mountain passes.<\/p>\n

And, the situation became a little more cramped Wednesday morning when county roads 2 and 110 were closed for avalanche danger. County Road 110 runs north of Silverton and County Road 2 runs northeast.<\/p>\n

San Juan County spokeswoman DeAnne Gallegos said areas north of town are rated for extreme avalanche danger, and those roads have a high likelihood of avalanches.<\/p>\n

Silverton Mountain Ski Area reported 22 inches of snowfall in two days.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe last time we saw that type of avalanche level reported from the CAIC (Colorado Avalanche Information Center) was during the big winter of 2019,\u201d Gallegos said.<\/p>\n

In 2019, Country Road 2, which goes to Eureka, experienced an avalanche that covered the road in roughly 40 feet of snow.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe message we are really trying to get out to the community is to please stay on the valley floor,\u201d Gallegos said. \u201cDo not be touring in the backcountry with a Level 5 avalanche danger.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Snow
Snow piles up in Silverton on Tuesday. Recent storms have caused power outages and road closures in the historic mining town north of Durango. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Both county roads remained closed Thursday. Gallegos hoped they would reopen sometime Friday.<\/p>\n

The Highway 550 mountain corridor remained closed Thursday, which is the only route in and out of Silverton.<\/p>\n

CDOT spokeswoman Lisa Schwantes said crews expected to complete avalanche mitigation work Thursday afternoon and the highway should reopen by Friday.<\/p>\n

Gallegos said snow-ins are part of living in Silverton and residents typically prepare for poor weather conditions. She said the grocery store may be limited if it snows on a delivery day, but for the most part, residents stock up on necessary items in preparation of big storms.<\/p>\n

\u201cLocals actually kind of enjoy it,\u201d she said. \u201cYou know, we always say you\u2019re snowed out, we\u2019re not snowed in.\u201d<\/p>\n

But snowy conditions can create problems for those who need medical attention.<\/p>\n

Gallegos said if people need emergency assistance, it can be challenging to find help during blizzard conditions.<\/p>\n

\u201cAbout a week ago, we were snowed in and we had a patient that needed to be transported to Mercy and Flight for Life was unable to fly,\u201d she said. \u201cOn that particular day, CDOT gave an emergency escort to our ambulance.\u201d<\/p>\n

When patients are unable to be transported, a town paramedic will assist until the person can be transported.<\/p>\n

\"San
San Juan County spokeswoman DeAnne Gallegos said the town has been dealing with power outages related to snowstorms this winter. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Silverton has experienced power outages this winter, which has caused the town to take its snow day prep to another level.<\/p>\n

At 10:30 a.m. Wednesday, San Miguel Power Association reported an outage east of Silverton affecting 47 customers along County Road 2. Crews were able to restore power by 12:30 p.m.<\/p>\n

Gallegos said the best way residents can prepare for power outages is to have a backup generator, purchase cellphone charging packs and carry dry goods or have a camp stove.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese are the community conversations that we\u2019re starting to have,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s not only getting our public buildings on a backup generator system, but having each homeowner be responsible for coming up with a plan for backup power in their home.\u201d<\/p>\n

tbrown@durangoherald.com<\/a> <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Spokeswoman says residents are prepared: \u2018Locals actually kind of enjoy it\u2019<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":35107,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[576,28,1562,327,2591,1384,414,88],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-35106","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-colorado-department-of-transportation","tag-headlines","tag-san-juan-county-colorado","tag-silverton","tag-transport","tag-u-s-highway-550","tag-weather","tag-weather-news"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35106","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35106"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35106\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":82866,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35106\/revisions\/82866"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35107"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35106"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35106"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35106"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=35106"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}