Lounge Snow this weekend?

Hey LarryS., if you're heading to Reno this weekend, I'd be curious to know what the snow level is like at the pass heading into Nevada.

I heard the northern Sierra got a shitload of snow.

Hello, Donner party!

 

I went yesterday(thats why u didnt see me post till later in the day).
To get my sports tickets for the weekend games. 7 hour round trip

I do that when there is a window to travel..and fri was the only clear day. They do a great job with the snow so the roads were clear.
There is usually just a stretch of 20 miles where u have to worry about snow....but that was extended to 40 miles

It snowed alot....and there are massive piles of snow to the sides of the road(its just 2 lanes mostly for the 50 mile stretch)
Even sparks got 5 inches where i live which is unusual. From the snow removal vehicles..the snow was piled up over 8 feet in some spots.

It snowed in the sierras every day this week except fri and is due for bif snow this weekend.

I have all wheel drive so I dont need chains if I ever had to drive in the snow....but keep in mind..its a windy 2 lane highway , up and down a mountains.....and some places there are no guardrails.....if you slide off the road.......you just dont end up in a ditch....well maybe you end up in a ditch...but the ditch is 6000 feet down.

So I dont make it a habit of chancing it.....if there is snow....I dont go.

I have been caught in unexpected snowfall here and there.....but like I said..I dont intentionally drive in the snow in the sierras.

 

Jesus! Do they keep any data on how frequently that happens? How many people would have to fall down and go boom before the jurisdiction in question says, "You know what, maybe it wouldn't be a bad idea to throw up a guardrail there."

 

Its about a 50 mile stretch of being in significantly higher elevations. Maybe 3-4 minutes of driving at 65 mph broken up into various spots is there the danger I spoke about.
Heck..there have been days when I am alone driving in totally dry weather where my mind wanders and I plan what i would do if I had a blow out in those places .
to make things even more treacherous youhave to navigate around 18 wheelers.
Jackknifed trucks are common and close down the highway usually

 

That is not uncommon in the Pac NW: many dangerous sections have no guardrails.

 

I can think of as few in my area, but none with any 6,000 foot drops immediately come to mind. There may have been a stretch similar in Eastern PA, or maybe it was MD, that I encountered over the Summer. Just talking about nearby, though, there are some treacherous roads in the Winter that do not necessarily have guardrails all the way through, but you'd be talking about a drop in the tens, rather than the thousands, of feet.

 

Yeah, we had snow this weekend. That and below zero weather again. This is the kind of crap I get to drive in this time of year:



But if you got front wheel drive and all weather tires it not to bad. You also need lots of cold cranking amps in the battery.



A nice day in Kalispell

 

This is what Hwy. 2, the northern most U.S. Hwy in America looks like this time of year:



The road ain't so bad in this spot. Just blowing snow across the road. A nice day. Only about 20 below:

 

There are no 6,000 drops in the Sierras. There are tons of 3,000 and 4,000 foot drops though. I know. I climbed or skied most of them. Along Interstate 80 there are a few 400 to 800 foot drops before you hit something. Now what is really dangerous is the fact that they are always plowing during storms. You go through there at night while they are plowing, and you slide off the road, they will plow right over your tire tracks. If you are down one of those banks, buried in a very deep snow drift, you will likely end up in a ditch that's six feet deep.

 

My household has a snow outing today. First I've had since I moved to Vegas. Myself, my 3 housemates and my mother all went snow tubing up at Lee Canyon Snow Resort, 40 minutes outside of Vegas. I didn't even know this place existed until I saw a story on the local news last week. I gotta say.....it was great fun! Even my mother and our older housemate both in their mid 50's had a blast. Much more fun than I would have expected them to have. And at the end of a couple 90 minute sessions and a good meal, we headed back to Vegas and warmer temps. It's hard to believe only a short distance away is like a whole other world and climate.

 

I can't even imagine that! We definitely have hills around here, but I can't think of any that don't have guardrails around any except the most gradual drops.

 

If I were ZenKing I would drop down to Mississippi for some blackjack before heading further west. The I-10 road is a pretty boring road to drive once you get to Kerrville, Texas. There is about 600 miles of nothing between Kerrville and El Paso. From Phoenix I would take 93 to Kingman and might even stop into Laughlin for some blackjack. Laughlin is about 30 miles west of Kingman. Taking this route you avoid Flagstaff on I-40 which is high altitude and usually the only place you see snow on the I-40 road.

The problem with I-70 this time of year is the high altitude between Denver and Grand Junction. The Eisenhower Tunnel on I-70, just west of Denver, is 13,000 feet above sea level. It's subject to snow there even in July. There are times, in snow storms, where you need chains to get through, and the road can even be shut down sometimes.

 

Good advice, MC. Much better than ZK received at WoV. Two different threads now the WoV gang has just dismissed ZK, because they have decided they don't care for him, so they aren't going to take him seriously or offer reasonable, respectful advice and answers. Very Mature.

If I could get one piece of advice to ZK, it would be to not travel with that 50K bankroll. Put it in one of the "national" type banks like Bank of America and withdraw when you get here. Let the bank handle safe transfer of your BR. It's too important to risk to some rouge cops or other robbery along the way. (I would have included Wells Fargo in my "national" banking suggestions, but they are liable to be out of business by the time ZenKing arrives in Vegas...lol)

 

That stretch of highway from the pass at Vail to Grand Junction on 70 is a marvel of highway engineering. It's even more impressive than that amazing viaduct on the Blue Ridge Parkway in North Carolina. But the most scenic of all highways is just west of Grand Junction on 70. The highway is split from it's east and west directions by several miles. The split highways climb up and down the grand escarpments of sandstone cliffs that make up the division between the high plains and the mid plains of rock that make up Monument Valley and the Grand Canyon. Instead of looking at these things from a distance you are part of them cruising along at 70 miles per hour.

 

Gizmo, that stetch you are referring to is the Glen Canyon just east of Glenwood Springs. Most of the roadway was built on candlever to leave the Colorado River in it's natural state. It was the most expensive stretch of Interstate road ever built, 10 billions dollars and ten years to build.

 

You are pretty much right there, KJ. There is no way I would take my entire bankroll on a cross country trip just because of asset sieizure by cops.

 

When I'm old and about to perhaps about kick the bucket Ill tell you guys a story that will make your jaws drop.

 

Don't leave us hanging, axel.

 

Yeah, drop dead. ....just kidding, couldn't resist it. PKB BTW