Commencement
Location: North Donner Lake, California
Created: 03/16/18 02:46:59pm
Camera: Canon EOS 5D iii
Lens: EF16-35mm f/4L IS USM
Aperture: f/14.0; 1/160; ISO 100; 54 shots HDR Pano
Paper: Xpozer
It took a near-miracle. After a dismal start to winter, during which the snow pack in the Lake Tahoe basin on March 1st, 2018, was just 25 percent of the median. Then shortly after March 10th, commenced a record snow dump for mid-March, and by months’ end, Lake Tahoe once again held enough water to supply Reno for as many as three years. An actual recovery from dismal to decent, similar to the most recent month hasn’t happened since the so-called “miracle March” of 1991. It snowed 5 ½ feet (67 inches) in just the next three days after this photo. All said, 16 feet (191 inches) of snow fell in just those last 18 days of March. This image was created by stitching together 54 shots, spanning an enchanting and stunning 180 degree view of the pristine 328’ deep Donner Lake. On the distant hill, named Schallenberger Ridge, on it’s north wall, you can see some of the 40 miles of train tunnels that the Central Pacific built to protect their tracks. Construction of the tunnels used 65 million board feet of lumber and 900 tons of bolts and spikes. The tunnel was completed after 15 months, on August 1867, and the first train passed through it on June 18th, 1868. The last train passed through in 1993 when the route was changed.
This bizarre horizontal tree on the frozen bank, that is alongside Donner Pass Road, fallen in Donner Lake, has allured and beguiled me for quite a while. To capture its unique sprawling nature was utterly elusive. This day worked to fulfill that dream. Then, for icing on the cake, a man and a woman, cross-country skiing, slowly approached on the left side. They silently ventured outward to the end of the left pier in the photo (one of the 37 docks on Donner Lake), then paused, gazing out through the multitude of snowflakes, and blissfully soaked in every macroscopic’ bit of the miracle.
