It's supposed to snow up to 7 inches of snow in the Sierras tonight through Sunday

So, if you are backpacking be sure you are prepared for something like this to happen to you.

Let me tell you a story of what happened about this time of year at Telescope peak in the Panamint Mountains near Death Valley somewhat. 

I was about 10 or 12 years old because my friend my age was camping with us and we both had our .22 rifles with us for target practice. Then we climbed Telescope peak from our campground fairly high in the mountains. 

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11,043′

Telescope Peak Summit Telescope Peak sits 11,049 foot (3,368m) above sea level. Death Valley from the summit of Telescope Peak. To the east at over 11,331feet (3,454m) below sits the lowest point in North America, Badwater Basin at -282 feet (-86m) below sea level.Jun 24, 2018

Telescope Peak - Death Valley - National Park Service

National Park Service (.gov)

https://www.nps.gov › deva › planyourvisit › telescope-p...

 

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However, Telescope peak wasn't then a part of the National Park service but it did have Forest Rangers so likely it was then a national forest becaues a forest ranger in a jeep had to come and rescue us from the snow.

My father then (I must have been at least 12 because we had our big Mercury Station Wagon that would be completely dangerous and useless on a mountain road, especially a dirt mountain road up to our campground likely at around 10,000 feet altitude. Because we didn't have to gain much more altitude to climb to the top of Telescope peak.

As we were climbing to the top of this peak we passed many boy scouts and their troop leaders going down from the peak. However, my parents hadn't read the weather reports because they weren't very good back in 1960 compared to now because there were no weather satellites back then so weather reports were iffy at best. 

 

So, as we reached the peak it started snowing and then my father and mother started to get worried because they realized that likely they couldn't get our car down that road with snow on it because we didn't have chains because we didn't live in a place where you would need them then in Glendale, California which is where I went to grade school or junior high then. So, it was this time of the year September or October on a weekend. My father had to hike many miles to the ranger station to get the ranger to come up and tie a rope to the back of our car so we wouldn't slide off a cliff going down the road. But, luckily we got out of there okay. He had a Jeep that had four wheel drive AND chains on so he was able to keep us from killing ourselves going down that road because we were attached to his jeep's front end to the rear end of our stationwagon.

 

So, what I'm saying is you CAN get caught in a snow storm and it can get scary or downright dangerous like it was for us then in California in September or October especially if you are up at altitude like we were climbing Telescope peak.