U.S. cannibals: Donner Party tries again

AP via KTLA, local Los Angeles Channel 5; Pfc. Sandoval, CC Liu (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Four Forlorn Hope Expedition members from left to right, Tim Twietmeyer, Jennifer Hemmen, Bob Crowley, and Elke Reimer near Donner Pass on 11/22/20 (Keith Sutter via AP).

.

A pair of backcountry endurance athletes who became obsessed with the American cannibals called "the Donner Party" spent the last seven years researching and exploring the Sierra Nevada on foot to try to pinpoint the final 90 mile (145 km) route survivors used.

There is an infamous tale of cannibalism in American history, how some Whites ate each other then cut through mountain snow drifts to reach civilization in the winter of 1846-1847.

Now, four veteran ultrarunners from Northern California are setting out on snowshoes to retrace the footsteps of the pioneers who braved the worst blizzard in a century to escape over the top of what’s now called Donner Pass through the Emigrant Gap northwest of Lake Tahoe.

Fifteen members of the original 81-member Donner Party left camp west of Truckee, California, along the current Interstate 80 on Dec. 16, 1846, but only seven — two men and five women — arrived at a settlement east of Sacramento 33 days later to fetch help for dozens of others.

Historians dubbed the escape party the Forlorn Hope, a term originally used to describe military missions with no realistic chance of success. More