Weather delays start of shuttle service on Pikes Peak

UPDATE: As of Saturday morning, the Pikes Peak Highway has reopened to the summit. The free shuttle service begins and longer summer hours are in effect.

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Snow, ice and strong winds delayed the scheduled Friday return of the shuttle service on Pikes Peak as the busy Memorial Day weekend began.

The highway was open to the 16-mile marker Friday. Highway Manager Jack Glavan said he hopes to have the summit and the upper 4 miles of highway reopened Saturday.

“The road crews have done an outstanding job working,” he said. “They’ve given up some of their days off. They’re working 12- to 14-hour days to open. They’re going to stay until 6 or 7 (Friday evening) to get it open. So we’re within a couple of miles of opening to visitors.”

Weather has closed the summit or parts of the highway often this year as the Rocky Mountains have received significant snowfall, and Pikes Peak even had an avalanche warning for a time.

Pikes Peak is on pace to have its lowest number of days open to the summit since 2015, when it was open only 185 days.

“It’s a little bit of a bummer sometimes,” said Wes Moskalski, a tour guide with Pikes Peak Bike Tours. “But as long as we get at least halfway up, we still get a lot of the same experience.”

One of the cyclists, Elizabeth Wefel, of Minnesota, agreed.

“I guess being from Minnesota, you get used to being disappointed by snow ruining your plans,” she said, laughing.

“It doesn’t matter where the pike, the peak, whatever, is because the entire area is so breathtaking,” said Greg DeNiro, of Ohio.

The shuttle service began last year to ease traffic congestion resulting from the closure of the Cog Railway train and the construction of a new summit house.

Glavan said because of the construction, fewer drivers will be allowed to drive to the summit than last year.

The staff will use more shuttles than last year, Glavan said, starting with 30 and adding 13 during the height of summer traffic.

Sharone Jones works as a parking attendant on America’s Mountain and said there are benefits to keeping visitors off the summit.

“People dressing half-naked to go up there, then they say it’s cold and have to throw some more clothes on,” she said. “I try to warn them. They don’t realize that it’s 60 degrees in Colorado Springs and below freezing and windy up here.”

The 16-mile marker served Friday as a temporary summit for visitors, as it has many times this year .

New shuttle drivers spent the downtime Friday receiving additional training from drivers who were on the job last year.

The summit house is expected to open next year, and the train is scheduled to resume service in 2021.

Last year, despite the changes, Pikes Peak set a record for visitors for the sixth consecutive year, with nearly 600,000.