There are roads that make your knees shake.
asserted
knees → be → ?
High above Colorado’s Uncompahgre Gorge climbs more than 2,000 feet in just six miles near the mountain town of Ouray.
asserted
Gorge → climb → Ouray
Instead, there is rock on one side, empty air on the other – and more than 60 named avalanche paths crossing the route.
asserted
60 → be → route
It is one of the most avalanche-prone roads in America that remains open year-round and when something goes wrong, the consequences can be dire.
asserted
consequences → remain → America
It remains so compelling to visitors that the Ouray County coroner called it an 'attractive nuisance', the New Yorker reported.
asserted
Yorker → remain → it
Last year, Oregon tourist Adam Hynes was driving along the highway when he spotted a silver Honda reversing near the edge.
asserted
Honda → drive → edge
Moments later, the car was gone.
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car → go → ?
Hynes told the New Yorker how he had launched a drone over the gorge and found the wreckage stranded more than 300 feet below, in the Uncompahgre River.
asserted
he → tell → River
That was when Ouray Mountain Rescue was called.
asserted
Rescue → call → ?
Volunteers Jeff Skoloda and Tim Pasek descended into the gorge on ropes, eventually reaching the mangled vehicle, when they suddenly heard a piercing scream and discovered 11-year-old Rachelle still alive inside.
asserted
Rachelle → descend → scream
Her great-grandmother and the driver were dead and traumatized Rachelle had suffered serious pelvic and arm injuries and was trapped upside down by her seat belt, with river water seeping into the wreck.
asserted
water → traumatize → wreck
There are few roads in America quite like Colorado’s Million Dollar Highway, a spectacular ribbon of asphalt that winds through the San Juan Mountains and clings to the walls of the Uncompahgre Gorge
US Highway 550 climbs more than 2,000 feet in just six miles as it leaves the mountain town of Ouray.
asserted
it → be → Ouray
Much of the two-lane road has virtually no shoulder, and in places it is only 23 feet wide.
asserted
it → have → places
There are sheer drops of more than 400 feet, while guardrails are conspicuously absent because they would obstruct the removal of avalanche debris
For tourists, it is a bucket-list drive, famous for some of the most breathtaking scenery in the American West.
asserted
it → be → West
For locals, it is a road to be treated with caution, because a moment’s distraction, a patch of ice or a mistake on a sharp bend can send a vehicle tumbling hundreds of feet into the wilderness below
Getting her out would become a drastic feat of rope work and nerve as the narrow gorge was too dangerous for a helicopter to descend.
asserted
helicopter → treat → work
The rescuers devised a complex system of ropes across the gorge, including a Norwegian reeve and a Kootenay Highline System, allowing them to move Rachelle away from the wreck and toward the road.
asserted
them → devise → road
The operation took around three hours.
asserted
operation → take → hours
Then came the hardest part: lifting an injured child more than 300 vertical feet back to the highway.
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part → come → highway
As she was hauled upwards, Rachelle asked whether there was any chance they could fall.
uncertain
they → haul → ?
Pasek told her no, she survived and eventually recovered after spending time in hospital.
asserted
she → tell → hospital
The volunteer team has recovered more than 100 bodies, often confronting scenes that remain with them long after the wreckage has been cleared.
And the highway has plenty of places where drivers can get into trouble.
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drivers → recover → trouble
At Harley Corner, motorists can become distracted by the spectacular scenery before discovering that the bend tightens dramatically.
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bend → distract → scenery
Tuffy’s Corner has its own reputation for crashes.
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Corner → have → crashes
Between 1950 and 1991, 58 vehicles were caught in avalanches below Red Mountain Pass – more than five times the number recorded on other Colorado mountain highways.
asserted
vehicles → catch → highways
Above the highway are more than 60 named avalanche paths, some with wonderfully ominous local names such as Riley Boy, Mother Cline and Slippery Jim
Members of Ouray Mountain Rescue have recovered more than 100 bodies since the team was founded.
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team → name → bodies
Some were climbers and skiers, while others were motorists who simply failed to negotiate one of the highway’s treacherous bends
In 1992, an avalanche struck two plow drivers beyond a snowshed.
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avalanche → fail → snowshed
Eddie Imel was killed after being buried for around 15 hours.
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Imel → kill → hours
His colleague, Danny Jaramillo, survived by digging himself out with a shovel.
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colleague → survive → shovel
More than 1,600 people subsequently petitioned for better protection but the solution never arrived on the scale many wanted.
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many → petition → scale
A snowshed was eventually built, but it was only 180 feet long rather than the 1,200 feet originally proposed.
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it → build → feet
The contrast with countries such as Switzerland is striking.
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contrast → strike → Switzerland
Avalanche expert Manuel Genswein has argued that roads facing comparable dangers there would typically have far more extensive protection, including tunnels, covered galleries, wider lanes and rockfall measures.
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roads → argue → tunnels
So why hasn’t the Million Dollar Highway been transformed?
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Highway → transform → ?
The answer is brutally simple: money and a lack of pressure to change it.
asserted
answer → change → it
Colorado’s Department of Transportation estimates that widening even a mile of the highway enough for major safety improvements could cost between $30 million and $50 million.
uncertain
widening → estimate → million
In terrain this remote and steep, every mile becomes a huge engineering project.
asserted
mile → become → terrain
And officials say locals simply aren’t demanding one.
asserted
locals → say → one
Instead, drivers are expected to adapt to the mountain: check the weather, slow down, avoid the road when conditions are bad and respect the drop.
asserted
conditions → expect → drop
That philosophy has become deeply embedded in the highway itself.
asserted
philosophy → become → highway
According to the New Yorker, CDOT officials say most crashes involve a single vehicle and driver error.
uncertain
crashes → accord → vehicle
…and 9 more, not listed.
The Aporia
