How to Judge a Mountain Access Road Before You Buy

A guide to evaluating the road leading to a mountain cabin, and why the drive matters as much as the house.

When you are looking at a cabin above Reno, the road is not a detail. It is the property. A house you cannot reach for months out of the year is not really a full-time home, no matter how good it looks on a clear July afternoon.

Start by asking who maintains the road. Some access roads are county maintained, some are private, and some are shared among a handful of owners who split the cost of a plow. Get this in writing if you can. A verbal agreement between neighbors about snow removal is not something you can count on once the property changes hands.

Ask what the road is made of and how steep the grades are. Dirt and gravel behave very differently once they freeze, thaw, and freeze again. A road that looks fine in dry conditions can turn into something else entirely after a storm. Grade matters too. A steep pitch with a tight turn is a different problem than a long, gradual climb.

Find out what kind of vehicle the road actually requires, not what someone tells you it requires. Four wheel drive is not the same as four wheel drive with the right tires and enough clearance. Ask current owners what they drive and whether they have ever gotten stuck.

If you can, go look at the road in the worst weather you can arrange, not the best. A dry road tells you almost nothing about a cabin you plan to use in winter. A road in bad conditions tells you the truth about how much of the year you will actually be able to get there.

A cabin is a road, a well, and a winter, and the road usually decides the other two. Get comfortable with it before you get attached to the house.