100 Turns On Donner Peak
Donner Peak (on the right) is that sweet mountain that dominates your view as you drive up old Hwy 40 over Donner Pass. Donner Peak and Schallenberger Ridge (on the left) are West Truckee's most popular off-piste back-country ski locations. Here are over 100 sweet ski tracks down both peaks, including a daring line down the nose and over the tunnel. In addition to the popular 'West Slope' route, other runs include 'Bubbles,' 'Lake Run,' and the north-facing 'Heart Chute,' 'Shoulder,' and 'Thumb' lines. This area provides incredible terrain for descents, including the typical "Lake Run" that goes down to your right from the summit to the train tunnel. Then, walking through the train tunnel (extremely dark and icy) for about five minutes, you come up to an open doorway on your left, where you should leave the tunnel and descend down to South Shore Drive, off Donner Pass Road, near lake level. Schallenberger Ridge (shown here, with over fifty tracks) would make a spectacular ski resort in this popular year-round tourist area.
The Ridge is named for Moses Schallenberger, an 18-year-old member of the first wagon train that attempted to go over Donner Summit in 1844, two years before the infamous Donner Party. Before being rescued, he survived for three months alone in the depths of winter at Donner Lake on that trip, eating foxes and coyotes that he trapped.
Working with the Truckee Donner Land Trust, in April 2003, the Trust for Public Land completed the protection of the entire 1,923-acre Ridge as an addition to the existing Donner Lake Memorial State Park, that tripled its size and provides a magnificent keystone to the new 25-mile Donner Lake Rim Trail. Judging from all the tracks here, bonuses were found by many skiers in that deep powder right after a crowning record sixteen-foot dump of the infamous 2019 "Februburied." Apparently, even for back-country skiers, solitude is all relative.
