A Tahoe driver was stranded for 7 hours in snow. Officials say it happens all the time By Gregory Thomas A Tahoe man who survived a blizzard while stranded in his pickup truck for 7 days in remote Sierra wilderness told officials he was initially led astray by his GPS navigation system. On Jan. 24, the man, 29-year-old Harland Earls of Placer County, set out from a friend’s home in Grass Valley for the 60-mile drive to Truckee. Under mild conditions, it’s a straight shot from Highway 20 to Interstate 80 over Donner Pass. However, winter road closures prompted Earls’ GPS app to reroute him along an obscure back road, where he ran into trouble.