As a major winter storm coincided with travel ahead of the Thanksgiving holiday, Colorado transportation officials boosted resources along the Interstate 70 mountain corridor, while Summit County law enforcement monitored the situation from a central hub.

The National Weather Service says the snowstorm dropped between 18 to 24 inches throughout Summit County between late Monday, Nov. 25, and early Wednesday, Nov. 27. As vehicles slid out on icy roads throughout the county, public safety officials sometimes closed roads and mountain passes for safety.

Colorado Department of Transportation I-70 mountain corridor communications director Austyn Dineen said that ahead of the storm, six additional heavy plow trucks were stationed in the mountains.

“Our maintenance crews were working diligently to make sure roads were cleared for travelers,” Dineen said. “The team was working really hard. The average snowfall was about an inch an hour. So it was coming down really hard.”

Between Monday and Wednesday, the I-70 mountain corridor experienced four safety closures due to multiple spun out commercial motor vehicles and passenger vehicles, according to the Colorado Department of Transportation. But Dineen noted that none of those closures were extended closures. In a winter storm, CoTrip.org can prove an important resource for travelers monitoring closures, she said.

Colorado State Patrol public information trooper Sherri Mendez said that around 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, law enforcement received a report that a semitrailer had been involved in a hit-and-run near Exit 205 to Silverthorne.

During the height of the storm from about 4 p.m. to just before midnight Tuesday, the State Patrol assisted 42 motorists who had spun out or slid off I-70 between Silverthorne and just past the Eisenhower-Johnson Memorial Tunnels, Mendez said.

On Wednesday alone, State Patrol handed out 50 citations to individuals not complying with the state’s passenger vehicle traction law, which requires vehicles to have four- or all-wheel drive, snow-rated tires or a traction device such as chains, Mendez said. She said that most of the vehicles that received citations were rental vehicles.

Silverthorne Town Manager Ryan Hyland said that there were some short periods during this snowstorm when I-70 Exit 205 “gummed up” traffic in town but the delays didn’t last long and didn’t impact plowing or public safety.

There were some issues with vehicles coming down the hill from Frisco that led to delays on I-70 that were cleaned up relatively quickly, Hyland said. He said after the major traffic jam caused by a snowstorm over Martin Luther King Jr. Day weekend last January, the town purchased a side-by-side off road vehicle to respond to calls if traffic poses an issue – but that vehicle was not needed in this latest snowstorm.

The most impactful incident that occurred during the storm may have been the power outage Monday night, Hyland said. That power outage impacted thousands of customers in Frisco and Silverthorne for a few hours that night.

“Storms keep us busy, but overall, it turned out to be a fairly uneventful event from Silverthorne’s perspective,” Hyland said. “All our systems worked as designed.”

Throughout the snowstorm, drivers traversing Colorado Highway 9 where it crosses from Summit County into Park County reported significant issues with slide-offs and stalled semitrailers on Hoosier Pass.

Park County Sheriff’s Office Lt. Jennifer Plutt said that Hoosier Pass closed from 6 p.m. until 9:30 p.m. Tuesday night due to several two-vehicle crashes, multiple slide-offs and two stuck semitrailers.

“When it comes to where it endangers my officers or the traveling public, we have to take everyone’s safety as a top priority,” Plutt said. “So that’s what led to the closure.”

Summit County Sheriff’s Office public affairs Sgt. Mike Schilling said that deputies assisted with numerous slide-offs and stuck vehicles throughout the storm, in addition to responding to calls for service unrelated to the storm.

From Loveland Pass to Hoosier Pass, Schilling said Sheriff’s Office personnel helped with storm-related incidents all over the county. He noted that during a storm like Summit County experienced this week, drivers should use extra caution on the roads and move over for tow trucks and emergency vehicles.

Due to the snowstorm coinciding with holiday travel, Schilling said the Sheriff’s Office’s Emergency Operation Department stood up the Emergency Operations Center at the County Commons in Frisco. The Emergency Operations Center serves as a central hub where public safety officials with multiple agency can coordinate, he said.

“In situations like this, the Emergency Operations Center serves as a central hub, coordinating with federal, state, and local partners to gather, assess, and distribute real-time information to responders and stakeholders,” Summit County Sheriff Jaime FitzSimons said in a statement. “As incidents evolve or new needs emerge, the EOC ensures that additional resources are directed where they are needed most.”