The west-bound cars were harder. The snow had blown in around them, and they had to get started against a heavy grade. It meant a good deal of backing and wallowing and unscrambling, and the drivers were nervous because they couldn’t see much. Those with chains had no real difficulty, but the others slipped about and spun their tires. All of these drivers were liable for tickets, because they had ignored the sign to put on their chains. The Superintendent told them so for a warning, but he was more interested in getting them off the road than in holding them until the Highway Patrol got there to give tickets. One by one the chainless cars were backed up until they got to a place where the snow was hard enough for them to get started up-grade. Once they got up a little speed they could keep moving, and the summit was only a mile farther. One of the highway gang drove the car which the woman and the old man had abandoned. Finally there were only two cars left, and the Superintendent radioed the Station to telephone Truckee for a tow-car; being towed out would cost more than a ticket, and would be an equally good warning. The people in the two cars looked cold and scared, but the Superintendent wasted no sympathy on them. People like that might make him lose the road, and besides it was just luck that nobody was killed.

He ordered the push-plow and the rotary to get to work cleaning up the mess. From the look of things there had probably been a little snow-slide to begin with, and that might have blocked the first car and started all the trouble. The push-plow began shoving the snow to the outer side of the road, and scraping off the crust, which had built up into a low hummock. The plow had to rush, and when it hit the hummock it bucked and pitched; the driver gunned the motor, and then in spite of chains the big double-tired rear wheels spun and skidded. Then the driver had to back up and rush again. Sometimes the plow accomplished little, and other times the cutting edge bit in close to the top of the pavement and broke off great chunks of consolidated snow eight inches thick.

In every rush the slanting stroke of the great plowshare flung the plow off to the left, and once it “did a wind-ding” by skidding all the way round in a circle. And all the while the gale whistled around Windy Point, and the air was thick with flying snow like feathers.

In ten minutes the push-plow had got the blocked place opened up to two-lane width again; the rotary moved in and started throwing all the piled-up snow over the side.