kleraudio

snowklinger, whats the secrets to the weekend! I hate the traffic on I70 and hate having weekends off out here!!

To the OP, you about to make the best decision of your life! I just packed up and moved out here last february, no job, nothing, just got the wife and we came out here.

I LOVE THIS STATE

You will too!

linvillegorge

Secret to I-70 weekend traffic? Get up early, get your riding in, then get back on the road by 1pm. That'll miss the worst of it. Other than that, just deal with it. There's no way to ride 1st lift to last lift and miss the traffic.

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"People say that marijuana smoking is going to get in the way of my career. I say to them that on the contrary, my fighting career is getting in the way of my marijuana smoking." -Nick Diaz

Skinny Bam

Nice ya I cant wait I wish I could leave right now. Where did you move from? How was the drive in February?

killclimbz

Well typically speaking it's get up early on Saturday. You can risk leaving late on Saturday, generally speaking the slow downs are short lived. There are exceptions of course. Like a jack knifed truck.

Sundays, you can leave later and the drive up is easy. Though if you don't leave the ski area by 1, you can expect to sit it some traffic. Especially if you are coming from Summit. You're toast.

One thing to note. Evidently that re route around the East bound tunnel at Idaho Springs for the expansion is not going to happen this season. According to my buddy who is an engineer for CDOT. Looks like it's been delayed until the spring at the earliest. So at least that junk show shouldn't be a factor until next season.

linvillegorge

Holy shit, if they were having to bypass that tunnel, I might have to join you and go backcountry only and just stick to locales far, far away from I-70. I can't imagine how awful it would be.

__________________
"People say that marijuana smoking is going to get in the way of my career. I say to them that on the contrary, my fighting career is getting in the way of my marijuana smoking." -Nick Diaz

killclimbz

Where have been? The East Bound tunnel is going to be widened to three lanes. Plus about a mile of the highway in front of the tunnel and three lanes all the way to Floyd Hill. That will be happening, just not during the ski season like they had originally said. It'll be an issue next season, no doubt. CDOT has started work on the redirect. The Frontage Road that goes from Idaho Springs to Hidden Valley is being turned into a one way two lane highway. Two year project I think. Yeah, it'll be ugly.

I am going to take some time this winter and do some exploring in RMNP. The terrain there is pretty off the hook. Unlike anything in Colorado outside of the San Juans. Might as well get to know it. I know my plans for this season were that anything I was going to do off of I70 on the weekend would be Saturday only. No way was I going to deal with the return traffic on Sunday.

snowklinger

Yea the boys have already told you most of it.

-Get up EARLY and be in Summit for breakfast. Plenty of people will be there for first chair and 10 minutes after, but nobody is there 30minutes before. (This is relevant to traffic up, parking, and base area bullshit).

-get first chair, and don't take any breaks until 1, then leave. If you don't stop for beers or lunch or fucking around, thats 4-4.5 hard hours of riding. If there was fresh, its tracked out - go home and get the fuck out of Disneyland before everyone else gets the same idea.

-find "expert only" terrain. For example, if you are riding Copper, one of my favorite mountains, go to the SuperBee lift, which is a whole 2nd mountain, where there are signs EVERYWHERE that say NO BEGINNER TERRAIN(there are always plenty of easy blues in these areas, just no green runs). On weekends this scares off alot of tourons.

-Don't go to Keystone, Breck or Vail on a Saturday.

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is it late october yet?

kleraudio

Ha thats exactly what we do, were on the road at 6am and gone by 130, no breaks, just riding! man i wish i had a job where i was off a couple weekdays instead of weekends! Never thought I'd say that

We moved from Tampa, FL man, wasted 6 years of life out there, SOOOOO glad to be here now.

The drive wasnt bad, we did get stranded in Hays, KS for 2 days tho cuz a blizzard closed down I 70 through the plains. All good, got some beers and chilled in the hot tub for a couple days

no breck, vail, keystone on saturdays? Is it that bad man? Dammit, just got my epic pass and was pumped!!

killclimbz

They have the most crowds on Saturday. Though if you have to choose a day on the weekend, I would personally go on Saturday because traffic is so much easier headed home on that day.

snowklinger

Yea another option from leaving early on a saturday is staying through dinner and driving home after 6-6:30.

You can still use the Copper strategy at those mountains but you have to know how to get to the secret spots and stay away from the crowds. Those 3 Vail resorts just probably get more people on snowplanks then anywhere in the world...theres not much you can do - its a fact.

I've only ridden 2 saturdays teh last 2 years, when friends visited from out of town. I've told them to come midweek, and from now on I'm sticking to it. I'm busy on the weekends - I run a kitchen!

-got the tips talking to old-schoolers around the bar who still ride weekends and make it work.

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is it late october yet?