First Snowshoe of 2010

Snow players and wanna be snow players,

Here is a brief trip report on our first event. Perhaps this report will motivate a few more of you to join us for future events. We had a small group of five of us -- your leader and four lovely ladies. We all stayed at my small condo at Northstar and so of course I was on my best behavior.

We drove up Saturday morning with good road conditions and fairly light traffic. We arrived at Northstar at 12 noon, had a bite to eat, and headed out the door and up the mountain on snowshoes.



The going uphill on the Northstar snowshoe trail gave us a opportunity to acclimatize to the 6500 foot elevation above sea level. The coming down was a blast with slipping, sliding, jumping and falling and no injuries.

Next we made a visit to the large adult (capacity 25) Jacuzzi for a nice relaxing soak with some of us showing off our "snow angels". If you don't know what a snow angel is you had better join us on our next event!

On Sunday morning we drove up to Donner summit and enjoyed several miles of snowshoeing in spectacular scenery with blue skies. One of our ladies is from Indonesia and this was her first big snow play event. What a splendid time she had!

Here is a panoramic 360 degree movie of the mountain tops on Donner Pass. Notice the fog bank in the valley over Truckee and Donner State Park in the background. (click the arrow to start video.)

Warning: high altitude reaction! Norma had an odd reaction to the high mountain air, but she enjoyed it!

Snowshoe wonderland at Donner Park

Our snowshoe hike on Saturday, Feb. 14, at Donner State Park outside Truckee was beautiful and great fun (even though it was a bit short). Unfortunately many people bailed out on the trip because they were worried about reports of road conditions and snow storms. As it turns out, although it was snowing at the higher elevations on Friday, the roads were well plowed, and it didn't snow on Saturday at all (but a new storm came in Saturday night and all day Sunday).

So we were a party of three for our snowshoe hike on Saturday (Krystyna, Norma, and Bob Colby). Krystyna and Norma drove up on Friday and stayed at Sierra Club's Clair Tappaan Lodge on Donner Pass. Arrived in time for a tasty hot dinner, and then played board games by the huge stone fireplace in the lounge.

On Saturday morning the snow had stopped, it wasn't windy, and it wasn't even that cold. We drove down to Donner State Park near Truckee and met Bob Colby, who led us on a short but awsomely beautiful hike up Schallenberger Ridge. It was only about 3 or 4 hours at the most, but it was fairly strenuous because so much new snow had fallen that we were sinking down into deep power with each step. But the solitude and beauty of the snow covered scenery made it all worthwhile. Hopefully Krystyna's photos and videos will give you a glimpse, and motivate you to come on the next trip. We got back to the Park office/museum by mid-afternoon, with enough time to freshen up a bit in the bathrooms and easily drive back home.



On the trip up, we began seeing snow on the ground just beyond Aurburn at about 3000 ft elevation. Further on, the snow started falling. (Krystyna has 4 wheel drive and snow tires, so no chains required.) When the snow started covering the road, all the cars had to slow down to 25-30 mph. So the trip that could take 2 1/2 hrs under optimum conditions, took about 4 1/2 or 5 hrs. We had no problem except windshield wipers started icing up, making it difficult to see out the windshield. No problem on the trip home Saturday afternoon either, no snow or rain fall, and the roads were clear.

On Saturday afternoon as we were driving home, we could see a new storm front moving in. That storm hit Saturday evening, and the whole Tahoe area was socked in with falling snow and fog for about three days. Looking at the Caltrans web cams on Sunday and Monday, you could see the snow was falling in the upper mountain areas and the cars were moving very very slowly. Looking at the ski resorts, you could watch the skiers out there braving the weather, but it looked snowy, windy, foggy, and cold.