One of two times in my life I've ever been was during a trip to Reno on I-80 over the Donner Summit (elv. 7,057 feet) in the dead of winter. Stopped at a gas station to re-fuel. Almost froze to death the brief time I was outside of the car.
I don't handle this type of weather well at all.
Wikipedia: Donner Pass* is a mountain pass in the northern Sierra Nevada, above Donner Lake about 9 miles west of Truckee, California. Like the Sierra Nevada mountains themselves, the pass has a steep approach from the east and a gradual approach from the west.
Elevation: 7,057′
Location: Nevada County, California, United States
Range:
Sierra Nevada
* Donner Pass - Named after the Donner Party -
The
Donner Party, or
Donner-Reed Party, was a group of
American pioneers led by
George Donner and
James F. Reed who set out for
California in a
wagon train in May 1846. They were delayed by a series of mishaps and mistakes, and spent the winter of 1846–47 snowbound in the
Sierra Nevada. Some of the pioneers resorted to
cannibalism to survive.
The journey west usually took between four and six months, but the Donner Party was slowed by following a new route called
Hastings Cutoff, which crossed
Utah's
Wasatch Mountains and
Great Salt Lake Desert. The rugged terrain and difficulties encountered while traveling along the
Humboldt River in present-day
Nevada resulted in the loss of many cattle and wagons, and caused splits within the group.
By the beginning of November 1846, the settlers had reached the Sierra Nevada where they became trapped by an early, heavy snowfall near Truckee (now
Donner) Lake, high in the mountains. Their food supplies ran extremely low and, in mid-December, some of the group set out on foot to obtain help. Rescuers from California attempted to reach the settlers, but the first relief party did not arrive until the middle of February 1847, almost four months after the wagon train had become trapped. Of the 87 members of the party, 48 survived to reach California, many of them having eaten the dead for survival.
