Snow Closed the Highways. GPS Mapped a Harrowing Detour in the Sierra Nevada.

The roadworthy erstwhile carried stagecoaches during the Gold Rush, twisting its mode done what is present a nationalist wood and an country of the Sierra Nevada known for snowmobiling.

In the winter, the rugged passage, known arsenic the Quincy-La Porte Road oregon County Road 511 successful Plumas County, Calif., is closed.

But Wendy Becktold, an exertion from the Bay Area who was connected her mode to sojourn an ailing comparative successful Reno, Nev., connected Monday, said that she had been unaware of that erstwhile she navigated her rented Toyota Corolla onto the backcountry roadworthy during a record-setting snowstorm.

Google Maps had guided her that mode due to the fact that 2 large highways adjacent Lake Tahoe were unopen down, she recounted successful an interrogation connected Wednesday, echoing concerns of different drivers and nationalist information officials astir the imaginable hazards of relying excessively heavy connected GPS applications.

They said that Google Maps and Waze, which is besides owned by Google, on with different mapping programs, wouldn’t ever relationship for seasonal roadworthy closures oregon treacherous terrain, emphasizing impermanent roadworthy closures instead.

“There were a batch of cars down us,” Ms. Becktold said. “Clearly, Google Maps was routing everyone the aforesaid way.”

Ms. Becktold, 50, a elder communicative exertion for Sierra, a mag published by the Sierra Club, said she and her relative had seen a histrion limb connected a powerfulness enactment and had passed galore cabins arsenic they unknowingly pressed on. They had stopped to enactment chains connected their tires. Then, a idiosyncratic successful a information vest waved them off, said Ms. Becktold, who lives successful Berkeley, Calif.

“He said, ‘Everybody conscionable keeps showing maine their phones,’” Ms. Becktold recalled. “He was conscionable similar exasperated.”

A Google Maps spokeswoman said successful a connection connected Wednesday that the tech institution was taking steps to supply drivers with close way information.

“In airy of the unpredictable conditions from the existent snowstorm, our squad is moving arsenic rapidly arsenic imaginable to update routes successful the Lake Tahoe country utilizing details from section authorities.” the spokeswoman, Madison Gouveia, said. “We presently amusement a wintertime tempest informing to alert drivers successful the area, and promote everyone to enactment alert and attentive.”

Google Maps did not reply questions astir what benignant of safeguards for drivers it uses, including warnings astir wintertime roadworthy closings oregon unpaved roads. SFGate.com earlier reported the white-knuckle detours.

In Washoe County, Nev., which includes Reno, a household of 5 from Southern California was stranded for 2 hours connected Monday nighttime erstwhile their rented pickup motortruck got stuck successful the snowfall connected a two-lane ungraded road, the region sheriff’s bureau said.

The household had sought an alternate way connected the mode to sojourn relatives for the holidays successful Truckee, Calif., during the storm, which closed an 81-mile agelong of Interstate 80 and contributed to the snowiest December successful the Sierra connected record.

More than 17 feet of snowfall had fallen during the period arsenic of Thursday, according to the Central Sierra Snow Lab of the University of California, Berkeley. The tempest besides closed Highway 50 for astir 50 miles successful the Sacramento Valley and the Lake Tahoe Basin earlier it and I-80 reopened.

In a Facebook post connected Tuesday, the Washoe County Sheriff’s Office said that the household had ignored illuminated informing signs telling drivers not to usage the Dog Valley-Henness Pass Roads.

“However, the family’s GPS won the conflict of which exertion to perceive to,” the sheriff’s bureau said successful a Facebook station connected Tuesday, adding that the household had been rescued.

It was not wide what GPS exertion the household had been using.

In a public warning past week, the Washoe County Sheriff’s Office said that drivers had often taken the aforesaid detour erstwhile utilizing GPS. From November 2020 to past February, exigency responders were called to 11 rescues, according to the sheriff.

Raquel Borrayo, a spokeswoman for Caltrans, California’s authorities proscription department, said successful an email connected Wednesday that the bureau had tried to reenforce that overreliance connected GPS apps could beryllium risky.

“When radical effort to usage mapping apps similar Waze oregon Google Maps to debar road closures, they tin sometimes beryllium enactment successful precise precarious and unsafe situations with unplowed roads/dirt roads, dense amounts of snowfall and zero cellphone service,” Ms. Borrayo said. “We ever archer radical to enactment connected highways and find alternate routes that mode vs. utilizing agrarian roads. We besides urge radical conscionable enactment enactment and hold until the interstate oregon road closure has been lifted.”

During this week’s storm, respective radical posted surface shots connected Twitter of Google Maps and Waze directions sending users to the Henness Pass Road, which the Sierra County Historical Society describes arsenic a secluded and winding upland roadworthy that rises to an elevation of 6,920 feet. The road, a superior emigrant way from Virginia City, Nev., is “left disconnected galore maps,” according to a statement connected the humanities society’s website.

The Donner Pass, named for the doomed snowbound pioneer family, immoderate of whom resorted to cannibalism during the 1840s, is astir 40 miles from the detour.

A spokeswoman for Waze said successful an email connected Thursday that the institution was committed to helping drivers navigate efficiently and safely.

“In airy of this week’s snowstorm and changing upwind conditions, Waze Community Map Editors proceed to support our maps updated with the latest real-time routing information,” the spokeswoman, Caroline Bourdeau, said. “We promote drivers to workout caution and to enactment alert connected the road,”

Waze has a filter that allows drivers to debar unpaved roads.

Crystal A. Kolden, a geographer and catastrophe idiosyncratic who teaches astatine the University of California, Merced, said she could not judge it erstwhile she saw that Google Maps had suggested Henness Pass and different backcountry roads to drivers seeking alternatives to I-80.

“They’re hardly drivable successful the summer,” Professor Kolden said connected Wednesday. “How reliable bash these companies person an ethical work to be?”

Professor Kolden, 44, who was astatine her location adjacent Sonora, Calif., successful the foothills of the Sierra during the storm, criticized Google maps connected Twitter. Some commenters mocked her post, saying that drivers should instrumentality work for monitoring conditions and that she sounded similar a Prius-driving millennial.

“Blaming susceptible radical for going down the incorrect roadworthy is the aforesaid arsenic blaming immoderate of those mediocre susceptible radical who drowned successful their basement apartments successful New York City not agelong ago,” she said successful an interview, referring to deadly flooding successful September.

On Wednesday, Google Maps showed reddish dots with dashes successful them connected the roadworthy that Ms. Becktold had taken during her circuitous travel connected Monday. The roadworthy closure warnings hadn’t been determination 2 days earlier, she said.

“It wasn’t similar we were conscionable frolicking along, looking for a time successful the snow,” Ms. Becktold said.

Ms. Becktold said she had nary prime but to instrumentality to Berkeley erstwhile she had been astir 150 miles into the 200-mile trip. Her cousin, who had been trying to scope her ailing member successful Reno, yet resorted to flying from San Francisco to Reno — done Los Angeles, she said.

“It seems benignant of silly successful this time and age,” she said, “that determination can’t beryllium clearer accusation online that these roads are closed.”