Another storm, another round of Washoe County Search and Rescue visits to the remote and rugged Henness Pass Road near Verdi.
Search and rescue volunteers on Sunday and Monday once again found themselves heading into the Sierra Nevada west of Verdi to help people who thought they could bypass the closure on Interstate 80 via a dirt road north of the highway between Reno and Truckee.
They were wrong.
Sheriff’s Department spokesman Bob Harmon said rescuers estimated about six vehicles were stuck on the road after bypassing warning signs stating the route was impassable for most vehicles.
It’s the second time in about a week the sheriff’s department has sought to warn people to think twice about driving up isolated, unpaved roads in winter storm conditions.
Although Henness Pass Road will show up on most GPS system, the road is unmaintained, lacks shoulders, is steep and in wintertime is often buried in snow, covered in ice or a muddy mess, or some combination of those conditions.
“To go up there in a regular passenger vehicle or even an SUV that is not a good idea,” Harmon said.
Harmon said stranded vehicles seem to be a problem along the route more frequently this year when I-80 is closed because of bad weather conditions.
He suspects it is because some drivers are putting unwarranted faith in the ability of their GPS to guide them and their vehicles to pull through despite clear signs warning them to turn back.
“I’m kind of at a loss as to why people would drive around a sign that says unsafe road conditions,” he said.
When I-80 is closed Harmon said the best thing for drivers to do is to wait until the closure is over then stick to the highway.
Rescuers will respond and extract drivers who manage to ignore obvious warnings and get stuck in the forest. But they won’t rescue vehicles, which means the vehicle owners will need to arrange to recover their vehicle using their own time and money.
“These are people who are driving through road closed signs because they think their vehicles can make it and they can’t,” Harmon said. “All that is going to happen and you are going to get stuck.”
