They were delayed by a series of mishaps and mistakes and spent the winter of 1846-47 snowbound in the Sierra Nevada. Some of the pioneers resorted to cannibalism to survive. The journey west usually took between four and six mouth, but the Donner party slowed by following a new route called Hastings cutoff , which cross Utah’s wasatch mountains and great salt lake desert
By the beginning of November 1846, the settlers had reached the Sierra Nevada where they become trapped by an early, heavy, snowfall near truckee now Donner lake,