When the heavy snow began falling Monday in the higher elevations of Colorado, so many skiers and snowboarders descended on the mountains that there were major travel problems along Interstate 70.

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From Empire to the Eisenhower Tunnel, some drivers needed as many as 90 minutes to travel 15 miles, according to the Colorado Department of Transportation. This was not only due to the volume of traffic on I-70, but also because U.S. 6 over Loveland Pass was closed due to avalanche danger.

"While this is great news for skiers and snowboarders, this heavy, wind-driven snow on top of a weak snowpack is likely to lead to avalanches in the backcountry," said weather.com meteorologist Jon Erdman. "Snowpack in the Rockies of Colorado ranged from 46 to 88 percent of average for this time of year before this storm. Wasatch snowpack was only about two-thirds of its late December average."

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At one point, CDOT video showed a person cross-country skiing past stopped cars near the Loveland Ski Area.

To the west, avalanche control work at Vail Pass also delayed traffic temporarily.

The storm, fueled by moisture from the Pacific Northwest, moved in Sunday morning, and by mid-Monday the Arapahoe Basin ski resort reported 22 inches of new snow while Copper Mountain said it had received 21 inches in time for the busy Christmas weekend.

The snow was accompanied by wind gusts of more than 75 mph at some higher elevations, which has raised the danger of avalanches in the northern and central mountains.

There was a blizzard warning in southwestern Colorado, where strong winds downed trees and knocked out power lines on Red Mountain Pass between Ouray and Silverton, temporarily closing the road.

Snowfall was expected to be lighter along the Front Range and on the Eastern Plains, but the eastern half of the state could get wind gusts up to around 60 mph into Tuesday.

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