Winter driving sucks and this weekend I learned why I have always liked Florida.
The '92 Regal was going to turn over the quarter of a million miles mark this weekend, so I was going to go up to Lake Tahoe to watch the odometer turn and grab a top-floor of Harrah's lunch buffet. I was able to make it up over the summit at 7400 ft on US 50 without chains, as the snow was pretty trampled on because of the cars. It was a little scary and there was a line of cars going 20 mph.
After lunch and on the east side of Lake Tahoe, the white stuff starts coming down. I could either wrap around the lake, at an average 6200 elev., and hope that the north side of the lake was snow free, or drop down real fast into the Nevada side where Carson City and Reno sit in the 4,000 + feet range and were more likely to be snow free. That's what I did.
Well, I then couldn't get up over Donner Pass on Interstate 80. I actually got turned back. My trusty Regal just kept on going. I came back on an arc I've done before up through the Feather River Canyon in northern CA which was only dusted in snow...and added 3 hours to the trip.
Since I don't give a $h! about skiing anymore, I doubt I will endeavor to cross the Sierras in a car during the winter again. In fact, a more southerly latitude is looking more enticing all the time.