A busy season for chain installers

In most of the United States, tire chains are a rare sight. But when winter storms sweep through the Sierra Nevada, drivers cannot travel treacherous stretches of highway without them. And California’s strict regulations frequently take visitors by surprise.

Last week, during the heavy snowstorms that shut down highways in the Lake Tahoe region and closed Yosemite National Park, the Sierra Nevada was crisscrossed with miles of roads under chain controls.

At Caltrans checkpoints along the highway, drivers must either confirm they have tire chains installed or, in some cases, four-wheel or all-wheel drive with snow tread tires. Hapless vacationers, unprepared for the mountain conditions, are often turned away.

“People come up there from the Bay Area or from out of state and they have no idea that they’re going to need chains or the conditions that they’re going to be driving into,” said Steve Nelson, the chief public information officer for Caltrans District 3, which includes the Lake Tahoe region.

Although tire chains can damage the roads, they are necessary to traverse the steep slopes of the Sierras, Nelson said. Traveling over Donner or Echo summits means driving over 7,000foot elevations with 6% road gradients.

For drivers unfamiliar with tire chains, Nelson advises putting them on in a driveway to practice before being caught in a snowstorm.

“If you’re out there and it’s 15 degrees and you’re getting pelted with snow and you’re trying to put chains on for the first time, that’s kind of a nightmare,” he said.

During heavy storms, many drivers rely on the services of chain installers like Alexys Llamas. Llamas, 32, who runs Tahoe Chain Installers in South Lake Tahoe, has been deluged with calls for assistance. During last week’s blizzard, he served more than 300 customers in three days, he said.

“It has been literally crazy,” he said. “People are super unprepared. When they tell you there’s a storm warning, take that very seriously, because it gets bad up here.”

Llamas’ cus tomer s are typically motorists stranded on the highway or vacationers who realize they won’t be able to make it up to their rental homes. When he arrives to install chains, the process is often quick, although the work can be treacherous.

“We’ve got to be on our tippy toes at all times, very aware of what’s going on around us, because it takes a second for someone to slide out,” he said.

California has a long history of chain installers, once known as “chain monkeys.” Demand for their services surged in the 1960s and ‘ 70s, as ski resorts opened in the Sierra Nevada, according to the Los Angeles Times.

But in recent years, the number of permits that Caltrans has issued for chain installers in District 3 has declined, Nelson said. SUVS with all-wheel drive and other cars that don’t require tire chains are increasingly popular. Long gone are the days when Nelson’s family would try to reach Tahoe in a 1963 Volkswagen Beetle, banking on its tire chains.