In Attendance:
Jim G (Leader)
Richard M (GV4W Friend)
Mickey W (GV4W Friend)
From Jim:
Today I joined up with two other Jeeps (friends of GV4W: Richard M and Mickey W) to do a pre-run of Glacier Assault off I-80 at Emigrant Gap. We met at 9 AM and drove down to NF-19 just past the Schoolhouse and kept on going through Onion Valley and up toward Big Valley Bluff looking for snow! We ran into a downed tree across NF-19 just above Onion Valley, and cut it out of the road, but at the cost of disabling our chainsaw for the rest of the run due to pulling the start cord out of the saw!
At this point, another group of three rigs caught up with us and told us they attempted to drive through exactly a week earlier but couldn’t make it due to the snow higher up. They were hopeful they might make it this time, so we joined up with the same intentions. We finally hit solid snow about 15 miles in just below Big Valley, and it got to about 2’ deep by Big Valley Bluff. At that point, the other three rigs decided they were going to let their kids play, eat, and then head back.
Our group decided to push on until we either got through to Yuba Gap or couldn’t get any further. As it turned out, we made it all the way through in some pretty good snow, but we had to climb over a rather large tree about ¾ of the way through! Even if our saw wasn’t out of commission, I doubt it could have cut through this tree! However, we all made it over on 37” and 40” tires aired down to 9PSI and No PSI.
So both Glacier Assault and Avalanche Express are open with the snow being pretty good high up, but I would recommend taking a big saw to that tree that still blocks NF-19! BTW, it took us 4 hours to complete this run!!