Now you can understand why the Donner Party starved

This winter the Sierra mountains have received so much snow that California and other southwestern states are declaring an end to their previously-announced drought emergency.  Here's a description of the current situation near the Donner Summit:

"Typically, we'll get one- and two-footers and occasionally a three- or four-footer," Sayler added. "But this year, almost every storm has been a three-four-five-six-seven-footer. And they've lasted for days."

The cumulative impact of those storms has draped the Donner Summit area in a marshmallow-white blanket of snow 17 to 25 feet deep at higher elevations...

"You spend your time moving snow, napping to recover and then turn around and do it again," said Steve Lieberman, a battalion chief with the Truckee Fire Department who lives in Serene Lakes. He has dug out his satellite dish – which is 17 feet off the ground – more than a dozen times this winter...

"It's gone from deep to epic to dangerous," said Randall Osterhuber, director of the Central Sierra Snow Laboratory near Donner Summit, where phone and power lines dangle at neck level in places and are draped through the snow elsewhere.

Propane leaks caused by the weight of snow bearing down on pipes are another concern across the area...

Seasonal snowfall totals have been eye-popping, too, including a record 57 1/2 feet at Squaw Valley USA, where officials announced Monday that they are extending the ski season through Memorial Day weekend – and possibly until the Fourth of July.

Some homes and buildings are so ensnared by snow that they can be reached only by narrow, tunnel-like corridors; inside, second and even third-story windows look out not on mountain views but on milky-white piles of snow that slide and tumble from roofs and press against the glass. 

Imagine what it would have been like for a traveler in 1847.

Photo credit:  Randy Pench.