A shortcut delayed them until winter: the Sierra Nevada trap

In 1846, families of migrants set out for California with their wagons. The group associated with the names of Donner and Reed takes a route presented as a shortcut. The difficulties of the passage make him lose precious weeks. When he approaches the Sierra Nevada, the season is already too advanced.

Snow blocks travelers to the east of the mountains. The supplies run out, the camps become places of waiting and members of the group try to seek help. The California Parks Service reports that the first of the four relief expeditions did not arrive until February 1847. Almost half of the group did not survive.

This story is often told only through its most macabre aspects. However, its initial mechanism is also worrying: a promise to save time has lost the window necessary to cross the mountains. The landscape had not changed places, but winter had turned a passage into an almost impassable obstacle.