The year-round passes that are most likely to temporarily close for winter weather are:Ĭarson Pass and Echo Summit both include sections where the road traverses a steep hillside that is prone to avalanches. The highest passes are more likely to be closed than those at lower elevation. And depending on how severe that weather is the closure might last a few hours or a few days. Just about any of the Sierra Nevada mountain pass roads can be closed because of winter weather. Late-winter weather in spring means that road crews have to move people and equipment off the seasonal mountain passes to keep other roads clear. These need to be broken up with explosives and removed in pieces. Sometimes huge boulders will have fallen and actually blocked the road. Severe winter weather can damage the roadways, guardrails, and other infrastructure. Getting the roads open again is more involved than just removing the snow. Depending on how much snow has fallen over winter, and what the spring weather brings, the passes may open again anytime from late April to early June. It takes several weeks to complete the job. Caltrans usually starts working to reopen the roads sometime in April. The mountain pass highways open up again in the spring. We haven’t been able to find a good source of seasonal closure dates for Sherman Pass Road. Sherman Pass, on Sherman Pass Road, is managed by Sequoia National Forest. We have not been able to find an online source for seasonal closure dates on Donner Pass Road. Our chart shows winter closures going back to November, 2010.ĭonner Pass, on Donner Pass Road, is maintained by Nevada County, California. But it disappeared during a site overhaul in the summer of 2019. This information was previously available on the Caltrans website. We publish and maintain a page that shows the seasonal winter closure and spring reopening dates for the major Sierra pass roads. It might be closed for a few days or a few weeks at a time. If the winter weather is fairly mild, Monitor Pass may not close for the entire season. Monitor Pass, on Highway 89, is lower and a bit gentler than most of the other seasonal passes. Occasionally, winter won’t arrive until early January, but that is quite unusual. That usually happens sometime between mid-November and mid-December. The passes close for the season when the first severe winter weather arrives in the Sierra. If there is snow on the road the highway might be open with chain controls. They are:Īny of the other passes may be closed temporarily during and right after a winter storm. Seven of the 22 Sierra Nevada mountain pass roads close for the winter. We’ll pass, unless there’s a snowmobile option. Imagine ice and snow, on a 20 percent downhill hairpin, with no guardrails, no cell service, and the nearest hospital is a couple of hours away. Even if you were able to drive these passes in the winter, you would probably not succeed. Ebbetts Pass and Sonora Pass both have grades that exceed 20 percent. The standard for US Interstate Highways says that the maximum grade should not exceed six percent, or seven percent if the speed limit is less than 60 miles (97 kilometers) per hour. A few haven’t changed much, other than being paved, because the tough terrain didn’t allow it. Several have been improved and re-routed multiple times to accommodate modern vehicles and travel patterns. Most of today’s mountain pass highways started out as primitive routes for wagon trains during the Gold Rush that started in 1849. The Sierra Nevada range is high and rugged. Read on to learn about road closures in the Sierra Nevada. We really hope the first time you learn about our winter Sierra mountain pass road closures isn’t on your vacation of a lifetime when you had planned to drive your rental car through Yosemite National Park in April. Sierra road conditions can change suddenly. The time from the winter solstice until the spring equinox. If you are from another part of the country-or the world-you might assume that “winter” means winter on the calendar. The first time you look at a California road map you might be quite surprised to see “winter closure” on several of the Sierra Nevada mountain pass roads. Estimated reading time: 6 minutes When is Winter?
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