On Monday, Red Cross shelters in the Colorado high country housed over 2,000 stranded travelers as state officials closed a stretch of Interstate 70 west of Denver due to a threat of avalanches. According to authorities, along with high winds, deep snow has drifted into over two dozen narrow ravines in the mountainside which raises the danger of potentially deadly avalanches cascading onto the highway. A spokesman for the Colorado Department of Transportation, low-power explosives have been used to try to bring the snow down while the highway was closed. Authorities cannot yet determine when the highway can be reopened.