Boulder season rolls into the Roaring Fork valley early

State Patrol predicts falling rocks will be worse this year

By Pete Fowler
Post Independent Staff
Glenwood Springs, CO Colorado
February 22, 2008

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GLENWOOD SPRINGS Colorado— Large rocks have appeared on the highways, marking an annual rite of late winter and spring: boulder season.

Earlier this week a few of them fell to the highway and bashed through the concrete
median divider on Highway 82 just south of Glenwood Springs. Boulder season is
starting a little early this year.

“We normally have rocks start falling mostly during the spring,” said Colorado State
Patrol Capt. Rich Duran. “I think we’re a little bit ahead right now, but come March or
April, I think we’ll see a lot more.”

Duran said boulder season will be worse this year because of extra runoff coming
down from larger-than-normal amounts of snowpack in most of Colorado’s high
country. In previous years, a few people died when they were unlucky enough to
have falling boulders smash into their vehicles near Marble, and in South Canyon
and Glenwood Canyon, he added.

But it’s more common for drivers to hit a boulder that’s already come to rest on the
highway. That’s happened at least five times in the area so far, Duran said, but no
one was seriously injured. But the vehicles, some of which couldn’t be driven again,
weren’t so lucky.

Dave Stanley, service manager at Glenwood Shell, said, “It’s becoming that time of
year, and we’ll be (repairing rockfall damage) all the way through April. If it starts
raining it really gets bad.”

Stanley said he’s seen about eight or nine vehicles that have suffered an average of $400 to $500 damage after hitting rocks on highways this year. Mostly, the work
involves repairing busted wheels, and damaged oil or transmission pans.

“I’ve probably done at least eight or nine so far this year, and it’s just getting started,”
Stanley said. “You just never know when you’re going to come in and find two or
three cars busted up from hitting rocks.”

Sometimes trying not to hit a rock makes things even worse.

“I know that there’s been a couple that have swerved to miss rocks and got torn up
pretty bad,” he said.

Cars that try a little too hard to dodge a rock sometimes hit the guardrail or another
car.

“It created a lot worse damage than just going ahead and running over the rock,”
Stanley said. “You never know what (drivers) are going to do when a rock falls in front
of them.”

Springtime can create a false sense of comfort for drivers. Warmer temperatures
mean snow and ice isn’t as much of a problem on the roads, but water freezing and
thawing between rocks breaks them loose and sends them down from canyon walls
or hillsides.

“People tend to bring their speeds back up when the road is dry,” Duran said. “Even
though the road is dry, the weather is nice, the potential for that rock coming down is
a possibility.”

Duran said rocks seem to hit the highways most in South Canyon and Glenwood
Canyon on Interstate 70, and on Highway 82 under the red bluffs near Carbondale
and south of Glenwood Springs. McClure Pass and its approaches, and Shale Bluffs
near Aspen on Highway 82, also get pummeled by lots of falling rocks.

Contact Pete Fowler: 384-9121

pfowler@postindependent.com




Post Independent, Glenwood Springs Colorado CO