Looking for Advice: Evergreen, CO to Loveland Ski Area

Hi,

Looking for advise from people familiar with the area, on taking a drive on my ‘23 ORP from Evergreen, CO to Loveland Ski Area on 12/31. We don’t really know how to road conditions are going to be exactly, evergreen has been relatively warm with no snow accumulation for the past week. I imagine going towards I70 West may introduce snow and/or ice but it’s an interstate so maybe it’s maintained?

My car has Falken Wildpeak AT4W all around which are three mountain peak rated. I carry tire chains just in case.

How’s that drive normally? What should I expect? Better to install chains before I head out?

Thanks.

 

Depends on the day/weather. Check cotrip.org for live cameras. 12/31 shows nice weather and minimal snow the day before.

camera link below.

https://maps.cotrip.org/@-106.60995,38.92653,7?show=normalCameras

 

Just asked someone who was up in evergreen today. Said roads are pretty clear/nomal. no major issues with ice/snow on 70.

Not sure if you familiar to cotrip but https://www.cotrip.org/search/from=...ations,weatherRadar,weatherWarnings,chainLaws

 

I literally was just there. Roads were fine and you will be fine. I think i engaged 4WD once and never had to put on chains. It sounds like you're prepared though which is good. They have pull off areas if you need to put on chains but you will be fine.

 

With AT4W's you should pretty much never need chains especially on paved roads in CO as they are usually decently well kept. I never use chains unless going through slippery mud or super deep snow; 4wd does fine for everything else. You also can't really prechain as chains are limited to like 25mph.

 

Awesome. Thanks folks. I was in Echo Mountain today and those AT4Ws did impressively well. There were some icy spots and some parts with 1-2” snow and the truck did absolutely wonderful. There was a d*ckhead in a Dodge minivan tailgating me even though my speed was perfectly good for the conditions. He eventually wound up spinning out (not gravely but enough that I’m sure he learned) and he never did that again.

The uphill out of echo mountain was deep in snow, and the truck pulled up wonderfully. I was on 4WD most of the time in the mountain twisties as things were clearly very slippery.

Looking forward to tomorrow at Loveland.

 

Did drive and back and the truck took it all like a champ. A few icy spots but nothing crazy. On the way back before we started our drive we saw a report of a 9+ car pile up resulting in the closure of I-70 going east at around Georgetown. Rather than taking the alternate route (3.5 hour back to evergreen) we waited it out and the drive back was smooth.

Loved seeing the incredible infrastructure Colorado has and the dedicated chain up areas and alerts.