Dylan Smith wrote:
....
Night IFR plus mountains has to be higher workload still as there are
even more fsck ups that can lead you to be smeared over the ground - in
the flatlands, a minor navigational error is unlikely to kill you.

I agree but these these were not really mountains. There are no
airports in these "mountains" either so really these bumps are only
during the enroute phase. Big woop. Typically You are cruising
along typically at 6000 to 8000 feet all fat dumb and happy. There
is literally no reason to be lower. The killer (literally, no pun
intended) was the pilot was pushed lower and/or continued into IMC and
was forced lower into ground whether that was at 0 MSL or 3000 MSL.
It wasn't like he was flying in a valley in the mountains. There are
no real valleys that you can fly in these 'mere continous
rounded bumps.'

I've flown in this area a bunch of times. If I were VFR-only, I would
NOT have chosen this route especially at night. Following
Interstate 5 gives you nearly continuous visual contact with the
ground below. there are a million and a half airports along the -5-
too. In fact, right after getting my private, I did do this exactly
while going northbound. There was stratus and once I knew the
terrain was increasing a little and the stratus sloping downwards,
I turned around about 6 miles north of Modesto and spent the night.
A year later I did this during the day. The visibility was great below
the 5000 MSL stratus 10 miles south of MOD. I went over these mountains
and it was VERY easy to avoid the terrain. Now at night, I would have
definitely stayed higher if given the option. This guy was not.

There was just a Lear accident at Truckee. That is mountainous terrain.
what those guys did was insane. Mountainous with known severe updrafts
and downdrafts, at visibility minimums (I don't have any reports on the
ceiling), in snow or rain and probably below freezing, non-precision
approaches only with one of which only is a circle to land. Ummm,
sounds to me like they should have gone to Reno's 11000 foot runway
with an ILS.

Gerald