For the emigrants trapped at the Donner Lake and Alder Creek encampments, the severe storm at the end of November had roared into December. It would be the first of three major storm periods during the month. On December 2 the snowfall let up a bit. That night the skies were partly cloudy, which led Patrick Breen to assume that the storm was over.

Storm Follows Storm
The following day a southwest wind felt mild and hope for a thaw swept through the camp. Breen wrote, "Wind S.W. [and] warm but not enough so to thaw snow lying deep all around. Expecting it to thaw a little today." Later that day he added to his first journal entry; "The foregoing written in the morning; it immediately turned in to snow & continued to snow all day & likely to do so all night."

By early December the snow depth at the camps had reached six feet with a much deeper pack in the higher elevations near the pass, and winter was just starting. The hardships that the emigrants were to face were just beginning. Already it very difficult to gather dead wood and the pioneers' cooking fires burned low. Soon they emigrants would have to burn their oak wagons. And hunting for food in the deep drifts was simply out of the question.

On December 4 the storm had passed and fair skies prevailed. The dry conditions lasted for five days and came as a welcome relief to the storm-weary emigrants. As a dome of higher atmospheric pressure nosed into the Sierra, the wind shifted to the northeast and the weather turned much colder. Breen noted, "No sign of thaw... freezing pretty hard... snow deep." (Note: Some diary entries are edited for clarity.)

Starvation Possibility
The likelihood of starvation before rescue suddenly seemed very real. Only a couple of the families had any substantial beef butchered and stockpiled; most of the families had just scraps of meat to live on until help arrived. Due to the lack of food, proper shelter, and an extreme state of exhaustion, many of the men were starting to lose their battle for survival.

Out of the 81 people in the mountains, there were 25 men and 15 women; the rest (41) were children. At Alder Creek, Jacob Donner was very weak and ill, as were teamsters Sam Shoemaker and James Smith. Two men from Germany, who had been traveling together, Joseph Reinhardt and Augustus Spitzer, were also in failing health. Reinhardt was at the Alder Creek camp while Spitzer was in the Keseberg lean-to at the lake.

The condition of Baylis Williams, who had been hired as a teamster by the Reed family, was also getting worse every day. (Baylis Williams would be the first to die at Donner Lake.) George Donner's wound had become infected and he, too, was laid up. John Baptiste Trudeau was the only male left at Alder Creek who was strong enough to gather firewood in the deepening drifts.

Clear Weather
From December 4 to December 8, a high-pressure shield deflected all Pacific storms to north of the region. Under bright sunshine, the deep snow pack took on a magical beauty. Although he was suffering terribly from painful kidney stones, on December 6 Patrick Breen wrote, "Fine clear day... beautiful sunshine and thawing a little. Looks delightful after the long snowstorm." The fair weather brought hope to the stronger Donner party members who had not given up on escaping the mountains. "Stanton & Graves manufacturing snow shoes for another mountain scrabble... no account of mules." wrote Breen.

The few days of clear and cold weather failed to bring the hoped for thaw, but it settled the pack and sustained optimism. The reprieve in the weather ended on December 9 when snow blew in at 11.a.m. By the next morning a foot of fresh powder had accumulated at the camps. Breen wrote, "Snowed fast last night with heavy squalls of winds. Continues still to snow... very difficult to get wood today. Now about 2 o'clock. Looks likely to continue snowing... don't know the depth of the snow... may be 7 feet."

Editor's Note: This installment is #23 in an exclusive, weekly series tracing the actual experiences of the Donner Party as it worked its way into American history. Mark McLaughlin, weather historian, who lives on the North Shore of Lake Tahoe, wrote the series for Tahoetopia. The picture is the author’s.