Hammered by the shutdown of DIA over the Christmas holiday, ski areas were banking on the long President's Day weekend to turn things around.

Instead, resorts struggled to stay open Friday amid howling winds, minimal visibility and temporarily closed portions of major highways.

Winter Park Resort shut down at noon. Spokesman Matt Sugar said that high winds toppled trees and created unsafe conditions for skiers.

Steamboat Springs Resort had to stop its gondola at 9:30 a.m. A wind gust of 107 mph was clocked at the top of the resort's 10,568-foot Storm Peak.

Two short stretches of Interstate 70 in the mountains west of Denver had to close because of high winds and blowing snow, and a 60-mile stretch between east Vail and west of Evergreen was temporarily closed. By Friday afternoon I-70 reopened.

U.S. 6 over Loveland Pass, and U.S. 40 over Berthoud Pass and between Kremmling and Steamboat Springs were closed because of avalanche danger, and U.S. 285 was closed over Kenosha Pass for a time.

Nicholas Jimroglou, 29, headed out to Winter Park Friday morning to celebrate his buddy's 30th birthday. But the pair got in only one run before going to the Mary Jane ski resort, which they also found closed.

They were going to return to Lakewood on U.S. 40, but decided to go the roundabout way because Berthoud Pass was closed. They made it only to Fraser, where they decided to stay temporarily at Fraser Valley Elementary School, where the American Red Cross had set up a shelter for more than 100 stranded travelers.

"We were sitting in traffic for two hours, and that's when I got out of the car and walked up to a construction guy who was stopping traffic, and he said there's no chance of opening this tonight," Jimroglou said.

"It was just really gusty winds, between 60 and 80 mph. It was like shifting the whole car around," he added. "I'll probably have a good sand- blasting on one side. Even standing out there, it was little pins and needles hitting you."

State highway crews managed to reopen U.S. 40 at about 6:15 p.m., but Berthoud Pass remained closed.

Resort operators and skiers were clinging to forecasts that called for the wind to be tamed over night.

Skiing and boarding diehards still hit the slopes Friday, although they were relegated to lower areas.

"A lot of people were able to get up in the morning," Steamboat spokeswoman Heidi Thomsen said.

Molly Cuffe, spokeswoman for Colorado Ski Country USA, said she was hearing that people weren't planning to cancel trips to the mountains. But they might be delaying them.

"It sounds to us, people are understanding of the situation," she said. "It's winter in the mountains."

Cuffe said she's hopeful highways will be clear today.

"(The Colorado Department of Transportation) and the state patrol, they are very cognizant of the importance of this weekend for ski areas," she said. "They want to get roads open and make sure they're safe."

Stacey Stegman, CDOT spokeswoman, said she expects travel records to be set Monday when people attempt to return to the lowlands. By then, the winds should have subsided.

She said all crews were working to clear roads.

Heavy snowfall had developed Friday evening over the Palmer Divide in eastern Douglas and Elbert counties, and strong north winds were producing whiteout conditions around Kiowa, according to the National Weather Service.

An area around the Eisenhower Tunnel recorded 18 inches of snowfall since Thursday, according to the weather service.

Colorado Ski Country USA reported Copper Mountain received about 11 inches of snowfall since Thursday; Monarch and Eldora, 10 inches; and A-Basin and Breckenridge, 8 inches.

Stay up to date

• For ski resort snow updates: coloradoski.com

• If traveling by car: cotrip.org

• To check the weather: www.weather.gov

• If traveling by air: flydenver.com

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