Donner Summit hopes for rebound after historic snowfall, road closure hit businesses
One of the most stunning roads in the mountains of Northern California can also be one of the most unforgiving — and nearby businesses have been forced to deal with the ramifications.
Donner Pass Road, running over the famous Donner Summit and highlighted by the panoramic Rainbow Bridge west of Lake Tahoe, has been closed multiple times over the past year. The closures have affected tourism and businesses near Donner Ski Ranch and Sugar Bowl in Norden.
Truckee-area business leaders are hopeful for a rebound with a fruitful ski season coming up — but they also remain reticent.
“I try to avoid paying attention to the weather because it just stresses you out if you’re looking at it every day waiting for something to happen,” said Davis Bedient, the mountain manager at Donner Ski Ranch. “Honestly, we are just hoping that we have a lot of snowfall and a lot of sunny weekends for people to drive up here and enjoy all the snowfall.”
The historic winter parade of snowstorms a year ago led to the windy road, also known as Old Highway 40, closing for weeks on end, cutting off the Donner Summit from Donner Lake and Truckee. Anyone traveling west to the summit had to take the long way around via Interstate 80, causing the summit to lose a substantial amount of its regular business customers.
Difficulties continued over the summer, during another peak period for tourism, when the road was closed for more than two months when a 10- to 12-ton rock broke free from the mountain and left the road in disrepair. The rock fell in early June, and construction and safety checks prevented it from reopening until late August, creating another lull in traffic and boon in detours.
A less-commercial area than Lake Tahoe
The road reopened just before Labor Day, leading to a dramatic uptick over the last three months, business owners said.
“Once it did reopen, the whole community was very happy about that,” said Janet Tuttle, who runs the family-owned Donner Ski Ranch with her husband, Marshall.
Tuttle spoke to The Sacramento Bee during a recent lunch hour at the bar of the Old 40 Bar and Grill at the base of Donner Ski Ranch, a far more modest ski area than the larger, more commercial resorts surrounding Lake Tahoe. Donner Summit doesn’t have casinos nearby like South Lake Tahoe to drive the local economy, nor upscale restaurants that require a gondola ride to get to.
The Old 40 Bar and Grill dresses itself as a prideful, local dive. The food is no frills, but is tasty and served hot. The bartender was taking calls from locals asking if they could come by and cut down Christmas trees from the property.
“We’re just keeping our fingers crossed for the right amount of snow,” Tuttle said of the upcoming winter. “Not too much. Not too little. That’s all we can do.”
Donner Summit, Soda Springs and Norden are the blue-collar neighbors west of the more pricey resorts like Northstar, Palisades and Heavenly. Donner’s website says, “Donner Ski Ranch isn’t fancy. If you’re looking for glitz and glamour, we’re not for you.”
That makes the area heavily dependent on Mother Nature’s cooperation so people can safely navigate the treacherous roads to experience the local scenery, including the historic abandoned train tunnels and access to the famous Pacific Crest Trail at one of its most scenic points.
A ‘cascading effect’
Of course, the area famously named after the Donner Party is used to braving the elements. A federally funded highway redevelopment project came two years before last winter’s historic snow fall that led to even more road closures along Donner Summit Road.
“We thought we were just about done with that construction,” said Hardy Bullock, supervisor for Nevada County’s fifth district. “And then it snowed like 40 feet, and then we got out of that, and then the boulder fell on it. So it’s just been this cascading effect.
“It didn’t allow the through traffic that would get the patrons coming to that classic Old Highway 40 experience,” Bullock continued. “The experience that people went and enjoyed along that roadway where they would stop and get views and vistas on the bridge. ... So people just kind of skipped it and went around on (Interstate) 80. And it also impacted Sugar Bowl and some of the other business when their staff members couldn’t gain access up Old 40 from where they lived in the Truckee area.”
The historic snowfall had already hit the area this time last year. The Lake Tahoe area last year broke its snowfall record for December with four days remaining in the month. There was 40 feet of snow throughout the area by March.
This year, snowfall has been more modest with roughly 16 or 17 inches coming last week while the local resorts rely heavily on artificial snow. Most of Tahoe’s resorts have less than 10% of their terrain open to skiers and snowboarders. Soda Springs has six of its 19 runs open, while Sugar Bowl is 17% open.
Donner Ski Ranch doesn’t have man-made snow and is waiting for more precipitation before it can open for the season. The hope is for enough snow to have good conditions on the slopes, but not enough to negatively affect the roads like Old Highway 40 to get there.
It’s a balance the area hasn’t enjoyed in years.
“I was born in Tahoe and basically lived here my entire life,” Bedient said. “It always snows. It’ll snow eventually.”
This story was originally published December 20, 2023 at 5:00 AM with the headline "Donner Summit hopes for rebound after historic snowfall, road closure hit businesses."
