How long will snow linger this year?

[paul0660]

Forever. It's a Donner Party year.

[CSACANNONEER]

Forever. It's a Donner Party year.

Mmmmm, finger food..........

[OHOD]

Mmmmm, finger food..........

[GrizzlyGuy]

Forever. It's a Donner Party year.

LOL, the camp where many of the Donner Party lost their lives is a few miles from my house, at an elevation 1300' lower than here. After living here for a while it amazes me that some of their party was able to continue on foot, climb up and over the Sierra crest, and finally be rescued way down on the other side. To give people an idea of what they faced, here are some pictures from yesterday after the storm broke, the 60-70 mph winds with driving snow finally stopped, and the sun came out:

My garage, the rough snow out in front is the driveway:



The snow was so high that I could have bent down and tapped the phone cable for free long distance:



The snowy gulch is the road:



The Donner Party didn't have professionally made snow shoes and poles, a nice fat dog to eat, or "snow gulches" to follow that were paved roads a few days earlier:



Trying to go back down the road instead of up wouldn't have worked so well for them either:



They also didn't have FedEx for overnight food deliveries. This amazing FedEx employee hiked over a mile up our "road", without snowshoes, along a route with an elevation gain of about 500'... just to deliver me that overnight envelope:



So yeah, I think you may be right: it's a Donner Party kind of year and the snow will be around for a l-o-n-g time if not forever.

[echo1]

Yes, even if we get some record breaking heat waves, it's going to be mushy all season, and the snow up high will stay. I'm thinking not the best year to try for the Palisades Glacier. Buy stock in Deet. PAX

[paul0660]

This amazing FedEx employee hiked over a mile up our "road", without snowshoes, along a route with an elevation gain of about 500'... just to deliver me that overnight envelope:

looks a little like Tom Hanks.

[Coded-Dude]

so do you guys ever get **** for calling them Sierras?

[GrizzlyGuy]

so do you guys ever get **** for calling them Sierras?

LOL, the Sierra Club is on my enemies list and prefers "The Sierra" or "The Sierra Nevada". Therefore I call them the Sierras out of spite.

[Joewy]

LOL, the camp where many of the Donner Party lost their lives is a few miles from my house, at an elevation 1300' lower than here. After living here for a while it amazes me that some of their party was able to continue on foot, climb up and over the Sierra crest, and finally be rescued way down on the other side. To give people an idea of what they faced, here are some pictures from yesterday after the storm broke, the 60-70 mph winds with driving snow finally stopped, and the sun came out:

My garage, the rough snow out in front is the driveway:



The snow was so high that I could have bent down and tapped the phone cable for free long distance:



The snowy gulch is the road:



The Donner Party didn't have professionally made snow shoes and poles, a nice fat dog to eat, or "snow gulches" to follow that were paved roads a few days earlier:



Trying to go back down the road instead of up wouldn't have worked so well for them either:



They also didn't have FedEx for overnight food deliveries. This amazing FedEx employee hiked over a mile up our "road", without snowshoes, along a route with an elevation gain of about 500'... just to deliver me that overnight envelope:



So yeah, I think you may be right: it's a Donner Party kind of year and the snow will be around for a l-o-n-g time if not forever.

Here in Wyoming when we get big snow like that in the winter we also seem to get big rain in the spring. Big snow plus big rain means big problems. Time to pay up your flood insurance.

[hntnnut]

Looks like global warming at its finest.

Richard