“It was the worst disaster of the overland migration to California.” Hello, Many stories have been written about the Donner Pass in the Lake Tahoe area. It is beautiful, but, only in the summer or anytime is is not so snowed in that it is impassable. Reading about it in high school history classes and actually visiting the area were interesting. We were in our snow skiing stage and we wanted to ski in places where there were fewer people, than the local Big Bear Mountain with the popular Snow Summit and Snow Valley skiing areas. Those So Cal places were usually packed on the weekends and that was when we had time to go skiing. One of my high school friends had wandered off into snow skiing while I was enjoying surfing along the coasts. We both got good at what we tried and wanted to spread out our wings, so to speak. Over the times we talked about surfing vs. skiing, it was a comparison. Stand up , take off a steep slope, turn, cut back and advance down the slope to the reward of satisfaction at the end of a run or kicking out at the end of the ride. So, we spent time locally to get me to ski. My friend said with my surfing skills, it should be no problem adapting the style to skiing down the slopes. He forgot to tell me that the movement aspects are opposite for each ride on a wave versus each trek across a steep hillside. So, as I was doing my best to go across the steep slope and then making a complete opposite direction turn about, I fell flat on my face. I was using the body lean as in surfing and made the long skis come across in front, but in doing that, I fell in the powder. After many hours of falling, I looked like a walking snow covered snowman. My Levis were soaked and my jacket was as wet as a chamois during car washes. I was a mess. But, I was determined to be as good as my friend and teen rivalry continued until he told me the right way to turn and move in the opposite direction with my down hill aspect of stance. No more leans into the turns as if I was on a 50 foot tall wall of water. Now, it was a 8000 foot wall of snow versus me. Jnaki From that first time to the Donner Pass adventure, it was as if someone turned on a light and I was amazed at how much fun it was to snow ski without falling into a snowbank. Or, just falling down after a sharp turn while facing down the steep slope. The “v” turned into a parallel stance and some style was thrown in place. So, months later, we were on a vacation to hit all of the big name ski resorts during the winter season. Mammoth Mountain, June Mountain and the as we headed North up the inland California roads. We were going to meet my brother and his friends in Lake Tahoe region for a tour of those new to us hot spots of skiing. Heavenly Valley, Squaw Valley and others. But, we encountered one aspect of driving in deep winter that threw us for a loop. Snow so heavy that we had to take an alternate route home. No more quick connection from South Lake Tahoe to Highway 395 and home to So Cal. We had to go North with hopes of clear roads leading us to the S.F. Bay Area and freeways all the way back to our homes. No one told us about Donner Pass and how beautiful it is during the summers. (My wife and I experienced the road from Reno and the Summer car show headed toward the S.F. Bay Area and the ocean…) This time, with our gear packed the small car with three teenagers was a lowered cruiser. It had plenty of power for flat smooth surfaces, but we all had to chug along in first gear with snow chains on the whole distance through Donner Pass. We even had to stop near the peak for an hour for the heavy duty road clearing trucks/scrapers to clear the road or at least try to clear the road for safe passage. We were lucky, as we found out later that Donner Pass was closed to any traffic due to the heavy snow pack and more snow falling. We were now on Highway I-5 headed home to So Cal, in the rain, but no snow. It was a well deserved snow skiing adventure from one side of California mountain range to the other side. I got my first taste of deep powder skiing and my brother had to come over and help me out of a deep rut that was almost over my head. Drowning in deep powder was/is not nice. YRMV
Acceleration demonstration. I wish I had known that excuse to give to a cop to explain why I was launching off a stop light.
The Jalopy Journal
