Historic Summit Trail
Hike Review
Cassie and I walked through a couple of abandoned tunnels at Donner Summit and then snowshoed back.
We parked slightly south of Donner Summit Bridge (marked “Donner Pass Rd Parking Space” on Google Maps) and headed up to the closest tunnel to the southwest of the parking lot. The parking lot was full, but we were lucky that there was this magical open spot for us when we drove up to the parking lot.
The entire place was covered with snow, so we did not bother with finding a trail and just went straight up. After going west on the tunnel, we continued on to the much longer tunnel, which spat us out on Sugar Bowl Road. We then walked on Donner Pass Road until we got to Old Summit Road, where we snowshoed back to the parking lot.
The abandoned train tunnels were a sight to see—it was tagged from top to bottom (near the entrances) and the walls had flows of ice. The ice was everywhere, in fact, as the floor was covered with a thin layer of ice too. We eventually turned on the headlamp as when we were in the middle of the long tunnel, it was hard to balance without much light. We found one pile of dog poop, but otherwise, it was cleaner than expected.
The snowshoeing was more fun than expected too, as we had started late in the afternoon and I had expected soft snow after the sun had beat on it all day long. I guess we were lucky that it was a cold day, as the snow held when we had our snowshoes on. On the slope down to the parking lot, we tried glissading, which Cassie successfully slid down on her butt. I, conversely, struggled to slide down as the snow was too soft.
After walking up a bit from the parking lot, we saw very few people in the tunnels or outside of it. It seemed like almost everyone that had parked was either playing in the snow, skiing/snowboarding, or rock climbing.
There were no facilities at the parking lot.
What I Learned
I had never been in such a long, abandoned train tunnel—I never expected that the entire tunnel could be covered with a layer of ice! If I had known, I would have brought a traction device for our shoes.
It was another triumph for our mountaineering boots as our feet were as cozy as can be, and neither of us developed blisters or even hot spots.
We had brought hiking poles, and it was 100% useful for gingerly walking on ice as well as snowshoeing. One of the snow baskets came off—never to be seen again—but it was still more useful than not having one.
I had not swung an ice axe in 3 years, and it was a joy to strike into ice and hear that sound that it makes when you strike true into ice. I can’t wait till next year to climb something!
What Happened?
1.9 miles, 2 hr 11 mins, 425 ft of ascent
I think I saw an Instagram story on the abandoned tunnels at Donner Summit a few years ago, and I thought it was a place I definitely needed to check out. About 10 years ago, I had gotten sick on a family trip to Donner Lake, and I had stared at Donner Summit for a long time and I had noticed the train tunnels; I did not know then that they were abandoned and could be explored! While I did think about going there in previous years, one thing or another always got in the way, and it sat in my brain as a place I told myself I’d check out when the opportunity was ripe.
On this weekend, Cassie and I needed to spend time at Grass Valley, and I had one day I could spend up near there. Once I saw that Donner Pass was just an hour away, I knew exactly what we’d be doing. Since it had just snowed earlier in the week, but we weren’t sure about the exact conditions, we packed all our essential snow equipment—mountaineering boots, snow shoes, crampons, trekking poles, and ice axes.
We arrived and immediately changed into our snow equipment. We had gotten a later start in the day, arriving at Donner Summit at 4 p.m., and we really wanted to eat dinner at this Thai restaurant that closed at 9 p.m. at Grass Valley. That meant that we had a little more than 2 hrs to finish this adventure so that we could get to the restaurant before they stopped serving dinner.
With our warm clothes on and our equipment in our backpacks, we headed into the snow and quickly left all the other folks behind, who were mostly near the cars. Once we gained some elevation and got to the tunnels, there was nary a soul to see.
The first tunnel was a short one, which meant that much of it was exposed to the elements and that the tunnel was well-lit. The light from the sun showed us that the walls were a cacophony of colors as there was no bit of concrete left untagged. And what made it even more interesting was that because of the derelict nature of the tunnel, there were these holes in the roof where ice flowed down from, leading to the ground being covered in slippery ice and there being well-formed ice covering certain sections of the walls. It had been a few years since I last had the chance to swing the ice axe, so I took the opportunity to do just that. After a few strokes, I was able to get my ice axe to sing that note when it hits the ice just right and the feeling that coursed through my body was pure delight. I then handed the ice axe to Cassie and she had a go too. After a bit of practice, she too was able to swing it such that the ice axe sung.
After traversing that first tunnel, we found a bank of snow and I taught Cassie about how to self-arrest. The snow was a bit too mushy and the bank wasn’t steep enough, so it wasn’t the best place to practice, but at least we were able to practice the fundamentals.
The second tunnel was a long one, where I think it was around ten times longer than the first one. With the floor having a thin sheet of very slippery ice, it took us forever to go through the tunnel as we had to be careful with every step. We were rewarded though, as the exit had a beautiful ice fall that looked like a wild chandelier—it was jaw-dropping gorgeous.
We had spent a little more than an hour and it was time to hurry back. We did not want to go back through the tunnel as the ice slowed us down too much, so we headed out and above the tunnel to snowshoe.
I was worried about the condition of the snow as I thought the snow would be too soft, but I was wrong—it was just perfect. It wasn’t too icy, where it gets too slippery and it wasn’t too soft, where one can fall too deep with every step.
We hiked back marveling at the view of Donner Lake and Mount Judah. And since it was downhill, we walked back rather quickly. Once we were in sight of Ramona, we tried to glissade down—Cassie (the first timer) was successful, I was not (just too heavy for the soft snow).
Once we got back to the car, we swiftly changed and were on our way (and we made it with lots of time to spare).