Photo: Mike Anderson for DeseretNews.com
Earlier this month, a man from Oregon got stuck in snow when he was caught in a snowstorm and he ended up surviving for 5 whole days on Taco Bell Hot Sauce packets. This woman from Utah is here to teach him a lesson on the importance of being prepared.
Michelle Richan tells Deseret News she likes to drive to isolated locations. She always knew she’d get stranded one day, so she always made sure to be prepared. For her, that meant having considerable rations of food and water packed in the trunk of her SUV, for a worst case scenario.
The worst case scenario came to happen on March 19, as she was traveling from Eureka, Nevada, to her home in Heber City. She got stuck in snow and mud, in an area that had no cellphone coverage. Despite her many attempts, all the cars passing near her and the planes above her missed her signals.
She was lucky that she had a trunk full of survival gear, including an electric blanket and knife. She survived for a full week before she was rescued and she reckons she could have easily gone for another 7seven days on the food and water she had.
Richan spent the time out of her SUV, cutting wood and making fires. She also shot her gun a few times, thinking the sound might alert someone about her presence, but she had no such luck.
She was rescued by a snowplow driver, who was alerted by the pilot of a small plane that had been actively looking for her.
“[The area] almost as dangerous in the summer as in winter when the temperatures go over 100 degrees and you run out of water,” pilot Ivo Zdarsky tells the publication. “I spotted something orange, so I just went really low to look at it and saw her actually running out of the car.”
For her part, Richan was glad to be helped home, but she’s also astounded that no one came to her aid faster. Not even the officer she’d passed on the way there reported to have seen her heading in that direction, after she was reported missing.
The experience is unlikely to have quenched her thirst for adventure. “I like going out in the middle of nowhere. It’s just, you know if you’re going to be out there, you need to be able to survive out there,” she says.
Had not help arrived, Richan was planning to burn the spare tire for signal and leave the car to find shelter. “I figured I had enough food left to at least last a week, so I figured I probably had enough to at least walk out if I had to,” she says.
Take that, Bear Grylls!
The worst case scenario came to happen on March 19, as she was traveling from Eureka, Nevada, to her home in Heber City. She got stuck in snow and mud, in an area that had no cellphone coverage. Despite her many attempts, all the cars passing near her and the planes above her missed her signals.
She was lucky that she had a trunk full of survival gear, including an electric blanket and knife. She survived for a full week before she was rescued and she reckons she could have easily gone for another 7seven days on the food and water she had.
Richan spent the time out of her SUV, cutting wood and making fires. She also shot her gun a few times, thinking the sound might alert someone about her presence, but she had no such luck.
She was rescued by a snowplow driver, who was alerted by the pilot of a small plane that had been actively looking for her.
“[The area] almost as dangerous in the summer as in winter when the temperatures go over 100 degrees and you run out of water,” pilot Ivo Zdarsky tells the publication. “I spotted something orange, so I just went really low to look at it and saw her actually running out of the car.”
For her part, Richan was glad to be helped home, but she’s also astounded that no one came to her aid faster. Not even the officer she’d passed on the way there reported to have seen her heading in that direction, after she was reported missing.
The experience is unlikely to have quenched her thirst for adventure. “I like going out in the middle of nowhere. It’s just, you know if you’re going to be out there, you need to be able to survive out there,” she says.
Had not help arrived, Richan was planning to burn the spare tire for signal and leave the car to find shelter. “I figured I had enough food left to at least last a week, so I figured I probably had enough to at least walk out if I had to,” she says.
Take that, Bear Grylls!
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