General Conditions

Fall weather has continued at Donner Summit.  Reasonably nice conditions have become more cloudy; and high temperatures in the mid-60s Sunday have slowly dropped to low 40s today.  Partly cloudy skies have given way to chilly rain in the past 24 hours. The Central Sierra Snow Laboratory (https://cssl.berkeley.edu) reports 9 inches of snow this year (none in the past week), compared with 16 in a median year since 1991.   Webcams at Sugar Bowl (http://www.sugarbowl.com/home) and Donner Ski Ranch (http://webcams.donnerskiranch.com/) provide up-to-the-minute views of current conditions.

Wildfire: The seasonal campfire ban remains in effect.  No open fires — including campfires, charcoal grills, etc.  Gas grills are OK.  Truckee Fire rates its fire danger as “low”; Tahoe National Forest says fire danger is also  “low”.   Find more information at https://www.truckeefire.org/fireban

Sunrise/Sunset: Today’s (November 13) sunrise was at 6:43 AM; sunset will be at 4:47 PM.  Sunrise drifted later by 8 minutes compared to a week ago. Sunset has drifted earlier by about 7 minutes. The days continue to get shorter by about 2 minutes per day.

Star Gazing: The Moon is approaching new, making evening star gazing easier.  Cassiopeia is a W-shaped constellation nearly overhead but toward the northwest in the early evening.  Look for Orion, rising in the southeast around 10 PM.  If you want to see planets, you can also Jupiter at about 45° above the southeastern horizon before midnight.  It will be at opposition (brightest) in early January.

Forecast

Fall conditions will continue to transition to more winter-like weather over the next week.  The Summit could see a high of 50° on Saturday, but it will be mostly showery into next week with 91% chance of snow Sunday (up to 6 inches accumulation).   There could be another few inches of snow Monday and a high/low temperature range 33°/19°.  But we won’t see any substantial snowfall  until at least the end of the month.  The week leading up to and including Thanksgiving will have temperatures 43°/23° and partly cloudy skies.

Summit Calendar

November 15 (Saturday) 12 noon: Applications for the Second Annual Snow Science School (January 14-16) are due.  For more information, go to https://www.csslsnowschool.com/

November 15 (Saturday) 5:30-8 PM: Feast at the 41st Annual Donner Trail Elementary School Thanksgiving Dinner.  All proceeds benefit children and classrooms of the Summit’s own elementary school.  There will be a raffle and silent auction.  Adults $25, kids $15.  For more information and tickets, go to https://event.auctria.com/d1a660a7-6d87-4754-9900-58dcb7f8f440/

November 19 (Wednesday) 6 PM: The second of four avalanche awareness sessions sponsored by Tahoe Mountain Sports will be at Alibi Truckee.  This one is “Where/When to go”.  Following sessions are scheduled for December 17 and January 21 on “Rescue” and “Partnering Up”, respectively.  For more information, go to https://tahoemountainsports.com/blogs/events

November 20 (Thursday) 5:30-6:30 PM: The next meeting of the Donner Summit Association Board of Directors at Engel & Volkers (10091 Donner Pass Road, Truckee).  Watch for an agenda at https://www.donnersummitca.com/dsa-meetings-info/ early next week.

Resorts

Boreal/Woodward (indoors) is open Wednesday-Friday 1-8 PM and weekends 10 AM – 8 PM.   The Castle Peak chair and MTB trails are closed for the season.  Check https://www.rideboreal.com for details

Sugar Bowl has no winter activities planned yet; check  https://www.sugarbowl.com for updates.  Season pass prices go up on November 1.  There has been a major overhaul of the main lodge and dining room … but not open yet.

Donner Ski Ranch has Disk Golf open.   DSR’s Old 40 Bar and Grill is open daily 8 AM – 9 PM. Check the DSR web site at https://www.donnerskiranch.com which says DSR will open in early December.

Auburn Ski Club is closed for the season. Check their web site — https://www.asctrainingcenter.org — for more information.

Soda Springs Mountain Resort is closed for the season.  For more information, visit https://www.skisodasprings.com/

Royal Gorge is waiting for snow.  Watch https://www.royalgorge.com/home for the latest information.

Kingvale Resort (on the south side of I-80 at exit 171) is closed for the season.

Other Activities

If you’re looking for things to do in the foothills and mountains, Nevada County has some suggestions.  These are spread more broadly but some specifically include the Summit area.  Some link to other parts of this web site.

https://gonevadacounty.com/ways-to-beat-heat-that-arent-swimming/ (like ice cream)

Roads

I-80: Watch for snow and ice on the highway when weather is bad (through this weekend).  Otherwise the forecast is generally favorable for the next two weeks.  Be alert to construction and lane closures — especially Monday-Friday.  There are at least three possible choke points eastbound — Crystal Springs to Drum Forebay, at the I-80/CA20 split, and between Rainbow Road and Soda Springs.  You can avoid the third by exiting at Cisco Grove and driving at a more leisurely pace on Hampshire Rocks Road, which parallels the freeway on the north side.   Continue across I-80 on Donner Pass Road, then go all the way to Donner Lake and Truckee.  Note that several ramps between Gold Run and Donner Summit are closed while being reconstructed.  Plan ahead by following CalTrans road reports at https://roads.dot.ca.gov.

General: Paved secondary roads around the Summit should be open; but be prepared for repair work and occasional delays.    Off-highway vehicle routes (unpaved) are mostly open, but watch for pot holes, rocks, ruts, and slippery spots.  There can be snow on these roads above 6500 ft.  Forest Road 85 north from Cisco Grove is closed (for several years) while the Lake Fordyce Dam Seepage Mitigation Project is completed.