Back at the J in Aurora ..... after the little trip up the hill to Avon, CO
Less than an hour later after leaving Denver, the temperature had dropped 30 degrees, and it was snowing pretty good going up to Loveland Pass ..... coming out of the Eisenhower Tunnel and going down the hill it was pretty messy but still not too bad.
When I got to the 195 MM the chain law was in effect to the top of Vail Pass, and the road was pretty bad coming down into Vail ...
I dropped my load at 18:30 EST and turned around and started back to Denver immediately .... which was probably a good thing since I-70 EB after MM182 going up to Vail Summit had turned into a parking lot (chains required after MM180 for commercial trucks)
Lotsa goobers with little front-wheel drive cars who have apparently never heard of snow tires ....
I almost chained up at about the 182 ..... but it really didn't look all that bad ..... I was pretty impressed with how the Sprinter and the tires (Michelin LTX M+S) did ..... cars were spinning out all over, sliding from one lane to another .... I never once lit the ASR light on the dash - or spun at all - all the way up to the top ..... even when I ended up having to start from a complete stop.
Interesting on how rapidly conditions can change when going up in the mountains .... when I left Denver it was partly sunny and 62 degrees
Descending from Vail Summit, on the way to Avon:
