Thousands of people in the Sierra foothills lost power this week and many were stranded by snowstorms that blanketed some areas with more than 10 feet of fresh snow.
But those conditions haven’t stopped the flow of “skiers,” weekenders from the Bay Area or the Central Valley who head to the mountains to ski, sled and tour. The influx of people has put pressure on mountain towns surrounding Bear Valley Mountain Resort, where local authorities said vehicles jammed downed power lines and blocked already treacherous roads.
The Calaveras County Sheriff’s Office on Friday asked travelers to avoid the upper Highway 4 corridor until conditions improve. The office warned that stretch of road remains covered in snow, ice and debris from fallen trees.
Additionally, as drivers exited their vehicles to ride sleds or drive up hills, randomly parked vehicles blocked “critical pathways” for utility crews working to restore power to more than 8,000 Pacific Gas and Electric customers in the area, according to the Sheriff’s Office. This week, limited parking forced crews to load and unload equipment from the road median.
“Despite repeated warnings, we continue to see a steady influx of recreational visitors to the area,” the Sheriff’s Office said in a statement. “While we understand the desire to enjoy the snow, this is creating serious safety concerns.”
Still, Arnold resident Vern Baird said the road to the resort “looks like summer” when Bear Valley reopens Saturday after a three-day closure. He was stuck in traffic on his way to pick up groceries for his neighbors, many of whom were still snowed in and without heat or power by late Saturday afternoon.
“Countless people are driving electric cars or Teslas out of the way even though there’s no way to charge them,” Baird said. “I don’t know how to put it nicely — people in the city are completely different from people in the mountains.”
When Tina Skillett headed to work at a self-storage facility in Arnold on Saturday morning, the narrow road was filled with parked cars. She said seeing children playing in the snow on icy roads made her nervous: “Not only is it distracting, but what if you slip on a child?”
Schillett wants Bear Valley to be closed for another day to give more time for the ice to melt and for utility crews to restore power. But she understands why the resort is opening at this time, noting that local tourism has suffered due to light snowfall early in the season.
“Our business is suffering,” Skillett said. “We’re at the end of the season, so it’s a critical time for them. And the snow conditions are good – this is their money-making time. But they shouldn’t push themselves.”
The Calaveras County Sheriff’s Office is warning weekend travelers of dangerous conditions on snowy roads following this week’s storm. (Calaveras County Sheriff’s Office)
After a relatively dry January and February, this week saw heavy snowfall. This fresh, unique layer of powdery snow also creates conditions conducive to avalanches, including the one that killed nine backcountry skiers in Lake Tahoe on Tuesday. Other resorts in the area have also seen a string of recent skiing deaths.
General manager Brad Cumberland said about 2,500 people visited Bear Valley on Saturday, about 500 fewer than usual. The resort decided to reopen after the snowfall slowed and crews were able to clear some of the snow and ensure lifts were functioning properly, he said, adding that a ski patrol with avalanche mitigation training was working “around the clock.”
“My understanding is that Arnold was in pretty bad shape after the storm,” Cumberland said. “We really have to proceed with caution because most of our employees are from that area and we know that all of those people have their own private yards to clean up and their own issues to deal with.”
In Arnold, the rush to clear roads amid the influx of tourists meant long hours for the town’s few plowing and tree-cutting businesses. Jessica Snyder, whose husband worked “40 hours” Friday and Saturday clearing snow from rural roads, said the county neglected to plow snow early in the storm. The county’s public works department did not immediately respond to a request for comment Saturday.
Calaveras County is digging in from a severe winter storm that left several feet of snow in some areas. (Calaveras County Sheriff’s Office)
As of Saturday, retired nurse Kathleen Morris Bince had been snowbound for five days at her Arnold home, alone and without power. Despite her concerns about bears, she left cold meals outside on the porch this week. At least six trees have fallen around her home, with one causing power lines to “bounce all over the place” and another falling in her driveway, forcing her to “crawl over” every time she takes her dog for a walk.
“I only had a few minutes a day to surf the Internet. I was OK, had wood in my belly for a fire, and food,” Maurice Binns wrote in a message to the Chronicle. “It has been an adventure, to say the least, easier said than done to experience.”
Stephanie Peffer, who runs a snow removal and tree removal service with her husband, said she “can’t even count” how many people have called to report trees falling on or into their properties, sometimes trapping them inside. Peifer said snow and debris sometimes flooded her husband’s equipment.
“He showed up at some houses and people would say, ‘I have no food, no heat, it’s 40 degrees in my house,’ and he couldn’t get them out,” she said. “For ordinary snowmen and tree people, this kind of pressure is great.”
A home in the Calaveras County community of Arnold was buried under snow and a tree after this week’s storm. (Courtesy of Stephanie Peiffer)
Peiffer understands visitors’ excitement about snow and its importance to the local economy. But the stop-and-go traffic in Arnold on Saturday felt at odds with the “state of emergency” she had been living in all week.
“It’s frustrating that people don’t know how to read a room,” she said. “Like, now’s not the time to play. We’re trying to make people feel warm and safe and clean up our town, and then once that’s done, they can come play.”
This article was originally published on California mountain town hit by snowstorm urges visitors to ‘read the room carefully’.