I-70 just claimed its busiest weekend of ski season with 142,498 vehicles in three days at the Eisenhower-Johnson tunnels.
That’s nearly 18,000 more cars than the previous weekend (124,846) and just over 1,000 more than the previous high earlier this month (141,160), despite a snowy Saturday when the mountain corridor shut down twice between Vail and Georgetown.
If not for that blip in traffic on Saturday this could have been the busiest winter weekend in over two seasons. The last time I-70 ski traffic got this busy was Feb. 23-25, 2024, when more than 147,000 vehicles traveled the interstate in three days.
This weekend was on pace for more than 50,000 cars daily, Friday through Sunday. If traffic hit 150,000 cars in three days it would have been only the fifth time in history that winter volume passed 150,000 cars, most recently twice in March 2022.
I-70’s busiest winter weekends (2024 and 2025)
- Feb. 23-25, 2024… 147,331
- March 21-24, 2025… 142,498
- March 8-10, 2024… 141,289
- Feb. 28 to March 2, 2025… 141,160
- March 22-24, 2024… 138,604
A season for closures?
Is the I-70 mountain corridor closing more often than usual this winter?
CDOT says yes. Colorado Sun confirms more than 200 closures between Georgetown and Glenwood Springs this winter, up 40% from last winter.
The timing of this year’s storms could be to blame. Two of our largest (and coldest) snowstorms hit on busy winter weekends, over MLK weekend and again Presidents’ Day weekend.