Trapped in the snow: A CBC reporter's tale of rescue
Friday, May 22, 2009 | 02:00 PM ET
Submitted by Lydia Neufeld
About: Lydia is a longtime CBC reporter and radio host based in Edmonton. She was recently trapped in her car in a snowbank near her family's cabin in British Columbia. This is the story of her rescue.
My take: The real heroes in my story are my brothers. I have eight of them. They arrived at the cabin from the Vancouver area around 11 p.m. and were out looking for me by 11:30.
A group of them was out all night traveling that stretch of gravel road between Mahood Lake and Clearwater. I am the only one who takes that route since I'm the only one who lives out this way. It's a route I am very familiar with. However, with the pine beetle infestation the logging in this area has increased significantly and over the last few years the "face" of this route has changed. More roads, more side roads and all the trees are gone. It looks different year to year. Rob and I have taken a wrong road during our summer visits to the lake. It is easy enough to do.
I came to a "Y" in the road and was unsure which branch to take. I took the left branch, it didn't look right and so at about the 10 km mark I turned around.
I re-examined the two routes and determined that while the left branch didn't look right to me it made the most sense, so back down that way I went.
I have never encountered snow on the roads in this area in the many, many years I've driven this way. Some snow on the sides, maybe, but never on the road. Until this past weekend.
I came upon snow, across the entire road and down the road about 60 feet. The very edge appeared clear of snow and so I figured I could keep two tires in the bush and two on the snow and perhaps make it through. I got stuck. When I got out of the car I realized the snow was deeper than I'd thought. It had drifted and where I was it was almost two feet high and my car had bottomed out.
I had an ice scraper in the car and cleared the snow from around the tires. I pulled dried grass from the side of the road and wedged it under the tires for traction. I put the car in drive and then reverse, to get it rocking back and forth. After about half an hour I had moved only about two feet. It took hours to make my way through the snow this way. It was also exhausting.
At 8 pm I was done. I was sweaty, wet, dirty and had another ten feet to go. I had left voicemail messages on two of my brothers' cell phones before I left Edmonton telling them I was on my way and would arrive Thursday night. I figured if they'd received those messages they'd be out searching by midnight.
I was sure I was on the correct road and so I figured my "knights" would find me by 1 am at the latest. I changed out of my wet, dirty clothes and hunkered down. It wasn't very cold out. I had lots of gas in the car and occasionally turned the car on to re-heat the interior. I was quite comfortable — well as comfortable as you can get in a vehicle.
When my rescuers hadn't arrived by 1 a.m., I began to think that perhaps they had not received my voicemail messages. By the way there's no cell reception up in these mountains. My first thought was "Good, at least then they won't be worried about me."
That would mean my family wouldn't be expecting me until Friday evening so I had some time to get myself out of this mess. By about 8 a.m. Friday I managed to free the vehicle from the snow, and continued down the road.
Remember, I was sure I was on the right road and moving forward — toward the cabin — was my goal. I turned a corner only to face more snow. I thought about what to do and ventured forward, and got stuck again.
The snow had frozen overnight and I was really stuck. At that point, I debated jogging down the road towards Coldscar Lake which shouldn't have been too far away. Except it was, because I was on the wrong road which I didn't know at the time.
I saw a lot of animal scat on the road, most of it I recognized: moose, deer, bear but there was this weird stuff, and lots of it, that I didn't recognize.
Cougars live in these parts too so thinking about that was enough to convince me to stay with the car. At least I had shelter and could lock the doors if necessary.
It took me hours to even get the car to rock back and forth. I was sick of being stuck in snow and when I'd finally freed the car I backed up and parked in the clearing. There was snow in front of me, snow behind me, what to do?
It was almost mid-day and it kinda of dawned on me that no vehicles had come down this road. That is unusual because Coldscar Lake is on the route and it's a popular weekend destination for locals. I concluded that I'd made an error and must be on the wrong road after all. I decided I needed to go back. To turn back though, I now faced that 60 foot stretch of snow again. And it was on an incline, there would be no gravity on my side this time.
I got out of the car and surveyed the snow. It was still quite hard and partially frozen. I had no tools to use to break it up and had to wait for some help from Mother Nature in the way of sunshine. It was a beautiful day, about 14 degrees. By mid-afternoon I began to tackle the snow. I used my feet to break it up and threw chunks to the side. I stomped on it so my car wouldn't get hung up on it. It took some time. By about 6 p.m. I was ready to take a go at it.
I put pedal to the metal and went for it. I was about two-thirds of the way through when my car started to go sideways. I kept my foot on the gas and was free. Hallelujah! I began the 16 km drive out to where the road forked and planned to go back to Clearwater. I was done with this stupid road and would take the long way around via Little Fort. It takes a lot longer but at least I knew I was not likely to face more snow!
While all of this was going on with me, my brothers were busy. They had Rob call our credit card company and determined my last transaction had been made in Clearwater at Super Save Gas. So two brothers went there and got a photocopy of the receipt. They demanded to see the video surveillance footage and the owner complied.
They went to Coldscar Lake and talked to campers and determined I had not come through that way. They narrowed the search area to a 40 km stretch of road between Clearwater and Coldscar Lake. Rob also mentioned we'd been known to take a wrong road or two so they expanded the search off the main road to the side roads.
The plan was to drive down each one about 20 minutes, figuring that that's as far as I'd go before deciding I was going the wrong way and would turn back. They give me too much credit!
They even went down 7A — the road I was on but just not far enough.
The RCMP were never involved in the search on the ground or in the air. No helicopter was dispatched. No plane was dispatched. That never happened because by the time they were ready to do that, I'd found my way out. Most of the people searching for me were my brothers, as well as some friends from the lake, a handful of search and rescue people and some volunteers from the local community. The search and rescue leader was very impressed with my brothers and with how methodical and planned their search was.
When I drove out of that road and connected up with the main road, I headed back to Clearwater. Up ahead I saw a cluster of vehicles. My first thought was "Oh no the road is closed and now I'll never get to the cabin!"
I drove up to the group. My brother Henry walked towards me. He was crying. It then dawned on me that indeed they'd known I was in trouble and they'd been out looking, as I knew they would have been. But I was kind of stunned to see everyone. I had convinced myself that there was no search going on for me because had there been, my brothers would surely have found me already.
It was a strange feeling, somewhat surreal, standing amongst all these grown men who were hugging me and sobbing. I felt so badly having caused them so much worry. I was mad at myself for not turning around as soon as I saw the snow, rather than try to go through it. The search and rescue fellow used his satellite phone to call the cabin and Rob to let them know I'd been found.
Though I guess technically, I found them!
I feel so very blessed to have such a great family, and friends.
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Comments
treehouse
The minute you saw snow you should have turned around! If in fact you're so familiar with that stretch of road, you should have known how rough and narrow it can be without snow! You not only put yourself in danger, but also your brothers and the other searchers.
It's good to hear you survived the situation you got yourself into and I hope you've learned something from it! You seem to tell your story in a very lighthearted fashion, but think about what could have happened out there had the weather been a little colder or if there had been more snow! You were not at all prepared for that road and shouldn't have been on it!
Posted May 22, 2009 06:08 PM
Buford Wilson
Houston
There's nothing wrong with living in a foreign country. I've lived in better(Brazil) and worse(Angola)places than Canada.
I never liked the idea of patriotism and being proud of the country where you were born. Because you have no control over it. It's like feeling proud to be white.
Canada is a fine country. But I can't go back because I can't take the climate anymore.
Posted May 23, 2009 10:10 PM