John,

Did you check and clean your battery posts? If you can hear the fuel
pump humming, sounds like you've got power, just not enough to start
the engine. Try turning on headlights and attempting to start  - - if
the lights go out or nearly so, I'd bet on a loose connection.
But since you say it's a manual, and it's Mammoth Lakes, how about
getting some help to point it downhill and bump-start it, then get to
a lower elevation where the temperature isn't so brutal to work on it!

Hope this helps,

Gary

> Date:    Fri, 26 Dec 2008 18:22:02 -0800
> From:    john schaper <tahljohn@SBCGLOBAL.NET>
> Subject: Help--Stuck in Mammoth Lakes
>
> Something's wrong and its not the battery.=A0 Drove up here Thur, with seve=
> re snow, etc.=A0 No problems.=A0 Went to start the 84 vanagon today--nothin=
> g.=A0 Charged the battery and the symptom persists.=A0 Manual transmission.=
> =A0 I don't hear a clicking sound, but there is a humming noise.=A0 My gues=
> s is that when I drove here, things got wet--but don't know what things.=A0=
>  Can anyone suggest troubleshooting.=A0 THe engine won't even grind, so its=
>  not fuel and its not the battery.=A0
>