![]() ![]() ![]() Crews are working hard to open the mountain corridors sometime today. 550 Red Mountain Pass remain closed for much of FridayĬolorado Department of Transportation Southwest Colorado Travel AlertĬolorado Department of Transportation crews continue to perform snow removal operations on US 160 Wolf Creek Pass, US 550 Red Mountain Pass and CO 17 Cumbres and La Manga Passes for much of Friday. Previous: Winter maintenance operations being performed on southwest Colorado mountain passes: U.S. Submit your change of address to The SUN.Thank You Newspapers in Education Sponsors!.San Juan Water Conservancy District & Dry Gulch.Pagosa Springs Community Development Corporation. ![]() We can all be the person with a tow strap who offers kindness and love amid the storm, whatever form those storms take. I think often about how we are all leaders. We’ve been caring for one another and investing in new habits - things like taking breaks and meditating - that rest ourselves so when tough moments arise we can take a moment to think, and trust.ĭuring that moment on Wolf Creek when I wasn’t sure what to do, I trusted - myself, the students, and a plowman I did not know who kindly offered help. In my environmental leadership course, we’ve been doing just this - talking about tough moments and what we can control when they happen. Because what we can speak of can be addressed, not alone, but instead in community. I’m learning to navigate these hierarchical spaces better. When we forget to take a moment to think. When hierarchy fools us into thinking we are powerless. When folks shout, blame, shame, note your limitations and believe the problem is you. Of being human with a physiological and neurological system geared for survival.ģ:03 AM MDT on 5:49 PM MDT on Oct 27, 2023įor me, physical storms are easy. They are moments of knowing myself better. I’ve learned there are many situations in which I can stay calm. I’ve had the opportunity to practice this often in life. “Calm amid storms” was one of the first characteristics students noted of leaders at the beginning of the semester in my environmental leadership course at Fort Lewis College. And in an instant we were out, turned around and headed back down the pass to Pagosa Springs and home to Durango. ![]() We were stuck just enough to need help from someone not in our car. The angle was awkward with little space between the car and the wall of this winter’s accumulated snow. That’s when the car met the snow.ĭuring that window, I’d tried to dig and had a good shovel with us, but it was tough to get at the snow behind the front tires. Snow, sky, and road were indistinguishable ever so briefly. We’d been driving slowly when a whirl of white washed over us. Then he came up to our car in the cold and biting wind, and said he’d pull us out. When this didn’t work, the plowman made the decision to drive by us and park behind my car. Were they coming? They were, though in recollection I think the plowman was holding back the line of cars to provide a window in which we could get us out. A big, orange plow appeared ahead of us and paused in the road for an uncomfortable three minutes. The Colorado Department of Transportation got to us first. Soon after we were stuck, a guy drove up and kindly let us know he couldn’t help, but a state Trooper was at the top of the pass and would be by soon. If we believe that action is essential, and each of us are co-creators of the new world, of heaven here on earth. We need to believe that another world is possible if we let go of hierarchy and power, victimhood and despair, and work toward communities, a democracy, a nation in which we each feel a part. We need to focus not on science, but values - love, kindness and connection. But, the way out of the climate crisis is not what most folks think, at least not what most folks think a scientist would recommend. I also know that we can get unstuck from a warming planet and from not enough snow in most years. Though this situation was new, I knew we could get unstuck. I’ve been stuck in mud and fog, lightning too, and faced the choice to evacuate a remote field camp in Alaska’s Brooks Range, on a moment’s notice. Stuck in snow and high winds on a mountain pass. I haven’t been in this situation before”. There was a moment, on Wolf Creek Pass, when I said, “Wait a minute. Meet Colorado’s Congressional delegation.Opinion: What a whiteout on Wolf Creek Pass taught me Close ![]()
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