Those who braved the President's Day weekend trek up to Lake Tahoe faced 14-hour drives and worse after major snowfall, but there was some epic skiing in store for those who finally made it.

We're only two-thirds of the way through February, and already records have been broken for snowfall at Tahoe ski areas, and the National Weather Service estimates that 18 trillion tons of water have been dumped on California so far this month. According to the Sacramento Bee, Squaw Valley and Alpine Meadows are on track to see their Jan. 2017 record broken for snowfall. The ski resorts have recorded 246 inches (20.5 feet) of snow in the month of February so far, breaking previous February records with 9 days left to go, and just three feet away from breaking the Jan. 2017 record of 282 inches. The resorts are also creeping up on their average season's snowfall total, with all of March still left to go. (Remember last season's 'Miracle March'?)

Also, of course, the biggest storm of the year so far caused plenty of problems, including mudslides in Sausalito, as the Chronicle reports.

The I-80 freeway was closed Friday night due to white-out conditions, and reopened Saturday only to close again after multiple spinouts. The closures pushed thousands of cars onto Highway 50, the alternate route to the southern part of the lake coming from the Bay Area, and ABC 7's Laura Anthony was one of the many who suffered grueling drives the likes of which you wouldn't wish on anyone but your worst enemy.

In the video above you can see and hear Anthony's blow-by-blow of the 14-hour traffic miasma she and her family were stuck in on Highway 50, which was exacerbated by chain controls and a big rig that spun out. (They had been bracing for an 8-hour drive, but it only became worse and worse.)

The CHP was even pleading with people Friday night to stop trying to get to the lake. Highway 50 continued to be shut down intermittently Saturday for avalanche control.

ABC 7's Anthony spun things to the positive, though, by Monday, documenting the beauty of Tahoe's "epic" snowfall, and extolling the "joy of floating through all that fresh powder."

Here's what I-80 looked like on Sunday.