The mountains ahead were already white with the season's first snowfall. After a rest of six days, the vanguard of these trail-weary emigrants struggled up to Truckee Lake (Donner Lake), which they reached on October 31. During this push west, the second heavy snowfall of the season enveloped the higher elevations from October 28-29.

October snow is not unusual in the Sierra--50 inches were recorded on Donner Pass during the second half of October 2004--but the coincidence of two storms heavy enough to impede traffic at such an early date are rare. Two years earlier in 1844, pioneers had crossed Donner Pass in November with little trouble from the weather, while another group succeeded just before Christmas in December 1845.

The late October storm in 1846 was cold enough to cover the lower elevations with an inch or two of snow, which slowed the progress of the rear guard of settlers that included the two Donner families. After one of George Donner's wagons flipped over and broke an axle, the two families were forced to stop for repairs in Alder Creek Valley about five miles north of Donner Lake. The Donners and their teamsters were now well behind the lead members of the wagon train who had already set up "temporary quarters" at the lake.

The October storms covered the vital Sierra pass with more than six feet of snow. Periods of rain settled the snowpack, but failed to wash it away. Two attempts were made to cross the summit during November, but both were turned back by deep snow. In early November, a storm lasting eight days pounded the mountains with rain and snow. When the skies finally cleared on November 13, the snow was about ten feet deep above 7,000 feet. Although fair weather during the next two weeks melted most of the snow around Donner Lake and settled the snowpack on the summit to six feet deep, arguments and fear stymied a breakout to safety. Another powerful storm at the very end of November dumped five more feet of snow at Donner Lake (even more on the summit), which sealed the fate for the luckless emigrants.

More snow in December increased the depth at the lake to seven feet with double that amount on the summit. In mid-December, a lull in storm activity encouraged 15 of the party to attempt a desperate crossing on homemade snowshoes. Each member of this "Forlorn Hope" carried about a week's worth of starvation rations. It would take them 33 days to reach the first settlement, Johnson's Ranch, in the Sacramento Valley. Only seven of the snowshoers survived their horrific ordeal of fatigue and starvation, including all five women who were in the group.

A series of storms ended February 6 and this was followed by an extended period of fair weather. At this point the snow at Donner Lake exceeded ten feet deep; up at Alder Creek the depth was probably somewhat less, but the pioneers there were still snowbound.

During a mid-February interlude of fair weather, two rescue parties from California succeeded in crossing the summit and reaching the two encampments. A group of seven able-bodied men and 17 starving refugees set out to traverse the mountains on March 3. On the third day out they were blasted by a severe blizzard that lasted two days.

Most members of this group, which included all nine members of the Breen family, were too weak to go on. They built a fire and waited for help. Their campfire melted the snowpack until they were all huddled in a pit 24 feet deep. Another rescue party found them in the pit four days later.

More snow fell in March with the final, major storm period lasting from March 28 to April 3. Louis Keseberg, the last remaining survivor, was rescued from Donner Lake on April 20.

Pioneer Patrick Breen kept a diary from November 20, 1846, until March 1, 1847. In it he gave a first-hand account of the weather at Donner Lake and of some of the daily events. It is one of the most remarkable documents of the American West.

In general, Sierra snow depths fluctuate greatly during the winter, but on January 13, Breen wrote, "Snow higher than the shanty, must be 13 feet deep." Heavy snow fell later in the month and on February 4-6 Breen says about six more feet of snow fell. The peak snow depth was somewhere between 15 to 20 feet deep at Donner Lake. Trees cut off at snow level by the emigrants ranged from 15 to 18 feet in height when the snow was gone, indicative of the exceptional snowpack that winter.

There were a total of ten major storm periods that season, beginning October 16, 1846 and ending April 3, 1847, with intervening periods of fair weather. Hard as the successive storms were to take, physically and mentally, the sunshine and thaws between the storms gave rise to false hopes of rescue or that the winter was ending.
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Mark McLaughlin's award-winning books are available at Truckee-Tahoe bookstores or on his website at: www.thestormking.com.

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