‘We’re Stunned’: Woman Survives Seven Weeks in Nevada Forest on Mix of Snow and Trail Mix
- Posted on May 7, 2011 at 6:29pm by
Scott Baker
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via The Daiy Mail:
A woman who vanished seven weeks ago with her husband in a remote forest has dramatically been found alive.
Rita Chretien, 56, managed to cling to life through treacherous conditions by eating snow and small amounts of trail mix. She lost up to 30lbs through the 49-day ordeal but miraculously is said to be healthy and recovering well in hospital.
Mrs Chretien became stranded in the Nevada forest with her husband, Albert, 59, on their way to Las Vegas from their home in British Columbia, Canada after their van got stuck in mud.
Authorities are still searching for Mr Chretien, who abandoned his wife to seek help three days after they got lost but has not been seen since.
‘We’re stunned,‘ the woman’s son, Raymond Chretien said. ‘We haven’t fully digested it. This is a miracle.’
RENO, Nev. (AP) — Sheriff’s deputies searching for the husband of a Canadian woman who survived for seven weeks on water and trail mix in their stranded van in remote mountains near the Nevada-Idaho line were holding out hope against all odds on Saturday that he too somehow could still be alive.
Rita Chretien, 56, told investigators the last she saw of Albert Chretien, 59, was on March 22 when he set off for help on foot with a GPS unit just a few days after they got stuck in the mud on a national forest road in extreme northern Elko County, Elko County Sheriff Jim Pitts said.
While it seemed unlikely he could have survived all this time, sheriff‘s Detective James Carpenter said crews weren’t ready to turn the rescue mission into a recovery operation.
“I want to wait to see what they come up with,” Carpenter told the Associated Press. “It‘s pretty nasty up there and there’s no communication.”
Deputies from Nevada and Idaho’s Owyhee County continued searching the rugged river canyons and snowy mountain sides about 10 miles northeast of the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest’s Jarbidge Wilderness Area.
“I don’t know how much snow is up there, but it’s really wet and heavy,” Carpenter said from the northeast Nevada town of Elko, which sits on U.S. Interstate 80, roughly 80 miles south of where hunters spotted the Chretien’s van on Friday.
Because of the snow and mud, the only way currently to access the site is from Idaho, Carpenter said. “We can’t get in from the Elko side.”
Officer Dan Moskaluk, spokesman for the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in British Columbia, said the woman was at an Idaho hospital and reportedly walking around.
“Her family said she lived off water and small amounts of trail mix,” losing 20 to 30 pounds during the ordeal, Moskaluk told the AP.
Detectives in Idaho intended to meet again Saturday with Mrs. Chretien and her doctors, Carpenter said.
During brief questioning Friday, she told investigators her husband left the vehicle with a GPS unit on March 22 and told her he was walking to a state highway in an attempt to find help.
The Chretiens disappeared in late March during a trip to Las Vegas and last were seen in Baker City, Ore.
“We’re stunned,” Raymond Chretien, the couple’s son, told The (Portland) Oregonian in a telephone interview. “We haven’t fully digested it. This is a miracle.”
The remote mountainous area where the van was found is popular with elk hunters, campers and hikers. It is surrounded by 7,000 to 10,000-foot peaks and geographic features with names like Rattlesnake Canyon and Rocky Gulch.
“It’s very remote and isolated,” said Joe Doucette, a conservation educator for the Nevada Department of Wildfire who fishes in that area. “It’s rugged country, steep canyon walls. Difficult to get in and out of.”
The area is about 20 miles west of the Jarbidge River, which has been the focus of a decade-long legal battle between over the Forest Service’s closure of a road to help protect the threatened bull trout.
“They got turned around off the main road that they should have been on,” Moskaluk said.
The van was found near the Bruneau River on national forest land. The Forest Service said in a statement on April 5 that a large landslide had closed the Bruneau River Road, but it wasn’t clear exactly where.
The couple left their Penticton, British Columbia, home on March 19, and reached Baker City in eastern Oregon that afternoon, where they were captured on a store’s surveillance camera.
Raymond Chretien told The Oregonian they made it to Nevada later that day, sightseeing on back roads when their van got stuck in mud. Three days later, Albert Chretien set out on foot.
Officials said weather over the past month in that area has included snow, rain and chilly temperatures.
“I don’t believe they were prepared for winter weather,” Raymond Chretien said. “They don’t go camping.”
The Chretiens were reported missing when they didn’t return home March 30.
The RCMP, Baker City police and other agencies mounted a search in April but failed to turn up any sign.
Moskaluk described it as an extensive search covering 3,000 square miles “from March 31 onward.”
He said the family is well regarded in Penticton and operates a heavy equipment excavation business.
Raymond Chretien said his mother doubts whether she would have made it three more days. She had been keeping a journal to let her family know what had happened.
Her son said she immediately apologized for the anguish she caused him, his two brothers and other relatives.
“She felt extremely bad for us all,” he said.
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Comments (66)
flipper1073
Posted on May 7, 2011 at 11:39pmAnd what the heck is SPECKCHASHER talking about
Report Post »flipper1073
Posted on May 7, 2011 at 11:27pmThat’s GROSS
Report Post »Silat
Posted on May 7, 2011 at 10:59pmAnd good ole body fat!
Report Post »ZaphodsPlanet
Posted on May 7, 2011 at 10:58pmMaybe Beck has rubbed off on me a little too much, but I’m getting this queasy feeling about this. If they were in the middle of nowhere, why didn’t the leave together to enhance their changes of survival. This smells funny to me Blazers…. I believe this story like I believe BO is good for the USA.
Report Post »NeoKong
Posted on May 7, 2011 at 10:19pmSeven weeks….? I could walk across Africa in seven weeks.
Report Post »Redistributor
Posted on May 7, 2011 at 10:17pmDoesn’t add up…something seems wrong.
Report Post »RepubliCorp
Posted on May 7, 2011 at 10:22pmsomething isn’t right
Report Post »Chicago Ray
Posted on May 7, 2011 at 9:41pmI‘m glad she was found but I can’t see how anyone could be 49 days from civilization in this country if dropped from an helicopter anywhere.
You‘d think you’d be out of the wilderness anywhere in 10 days in any direction at the most. Strange indeed. I could think of many nefarious reasons it would take that long but she doesn‘t seem the ’type’.
Report Post »Captain Crunch
Posted on May 8, 2011 at 12:06amIt’s very easy to get turned around without a compass.
Report Post »RightPolitically
Posted on May 7, 2011 at 9:23pmWhere the heck were they and how the heck did they get there? Unbelievable!
Report Post »nomercy63
Posted on May 7, 2011 at 8:49pmGood she is alive! Sorry the husband is missing! When will people that go somewhere be prepared for things and keep others informed where they are Stupid. We lived in Arizona we always traveled with a ice chest full of drinks and food and a bag with tools in the trunk and let people know where we were 112 degrees is not fun, always saw people broke down side of the road unprepared easy to die in those conditions.
Report Post »Rick Steele
Posted on May 7, 2011 at 8:35pmWait, why is this Nevada story being reported on by a Brit? I mean phrases like, “recovering well in hospital”. Where’s the local angle on this story?
Report Post »Nick Pable with Buckshot
Posted on May 8, 2011 at 2:10pmRick,
Report Post »Because it was reported in the Daily Mail, known throughout the UK as The Daily Liar. I have warned you before.
Rick Steele
Posted on May 7, 2011 at 8:34pmWhen his body is found (that is, if it’s found), look for bite marks (or knife marks) on his long bones…telltale traces of canibalism. Man, that’s a creepy story!
Report Post »vtxphantom
Posted on May 7, 2011 at 8:19pmWOW. My prayers go out for you and your husband.
Report Post »heavyduty
Posted on May 7, 2011 at 7:59pmBut I am glad that she is safe, hope the same for the husband.
Report Post »82dAirborne
Posted on May 7, 2011 at 8:07pmI agree with you 100%. Still the story does not make any sense to me. I hope I am wrong!!!!
Report Post »heavyduty
Posted on May 7, 2011 at 7:59pmThat was one big bag of trailmix to last 7 weeks.
Report Post »mossbrain
Posted on May 7, 2011 at 7:52pmWell, you know why the husband wasn‘t found don’t you?
Eaten by his wife.
Report Post »LiveNation
Posted on May 7, 2011 at 7:33pmDonner party comes to mind.
Report Post »ZaphodsPlanet
Posted on May 7, 2011 at 11:00pmI’ve got that same icky feeling myself.
Report Post »flipper1073
Posted on May 7, 2011 at 11:42pmCRACKERONE stop listening to MOSSBRAIN
Report Post »82dAirborne
Posted on May 7, 2011 at 7:16pmI cannot tell how thankful I am to You Moss!! Since you obviously have tried the diet you suggest I have something new to add to my survival skills.
Of course feces are poison. And a 56 year old female is unlikely to have a “flow.”
You do give new meaning to the phrase “Feces for Mossbrains.” Congratulations.
Report Post »wbaranowski
Posted on May 7, 2011 at 7:11pmRemind me to leave Mossbrain at home on the next camping trip. Geesh.
Report Post »82dAirborne
Posted on May 7, 2011 at 7:34pmConsider yourself reminded!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Report Post »crackerone
Posted on May 7, 2011 at 10:00pmFiber bars make you smart!
Report Post »SMSgtBoomer
Posted on May 7, 2011 at 6:59pmThere is a whole lot of nothing, but desolate desert and mountains between the I-84 corridor that runs through Idaho down to the I-80 corridor in Nevada. We have been getting hammered by snow/rain storms and unseasonable cold weather and it is very easy to understand how they became lost and then stuck. I can look out from my back yard and see the Owyhee Mountains to the south and they are still covered with snow. We have a saying around our parts that the Owyhee’s are a great place to leave a body.
Report Post »82dAirborne
Posted on May 7, 2011 at 6:50pmOnly 30 lbs. in 49 days eating mostly snow? I don’t think so. The smell test says: Something VERY fishy!
Report Post »RepubliCorp
Posted on May 7, 2011 at 10:17pmAgree….. unless she had 30lbs of trail mix
Report Post »Captain Crunch
Posted on May 7, 2011 at 11:59pmWhy all the doubt? The writer specifically said, “small amounts”. She probably knew the danger and moderated her liquid intake. She survived.
Report Post »mrst
Posted on May 7, 2011 at 6:47pmwow, hope they find him ok too. thank God!
Report Post »johnniereb
Posted on May 7, 2011 at 6:46pmGod Bless them both. Hope the husband is found safe. People should not go wandering in unknown areas such as national forests without a gps.o
Report Post »t
JMS
Posted on May 7, 2011 at 6:45pmI’m going to call bullshoot on this one.
Report Post »82dAirborne
Posted on May 7, 2011 at 6:57pmYa think?? Even in moderately cold environments the human body burns extra calories to stay warm. If you were to “eat” snow or even drink cold water the process would be even faster. If she had lost 75+ pounds and been near death I might but it.
Report Post »woodenbadger
Posted on May 7, 2011 at 6:41pmFinally a diet plan for RUBY!
Report Post »Hawt'n'secksie
Posted on May 7, 2011 at 7:42pmBwahahaha! Poor Ruby. LOL!
Report Post »poverty.sucks
Posted on May 7, 2011 at 6:41pmShe should market this, Trail Mix Diel
Report Post »Finch88
Posted on May 7, 2011 at 6:43pmWhat a touching story.
http://politicalbowl.com – Political Videos
Report Post »poverty.sucks
Posted on May 7, 2011 at 6:51pmAnother plan had been revealed, Middle Eastern Cave Man Diet
Report Post »jeffyfreezone
Posted on May 7, 2011 at 6:55pmI guess we‘ll be seeing this on I Shouldn’t be Alive.
Report Post »Snowleopard {gallery of cat folks}
Posted on May 7, 2011 at 7:01pmHuman will to live; I hope and pray for the husband to be found still alive…there is always hope.
Report Post »Dustyluv
Posted on May 7, 2011 at 7:30pmThw human bosy can survive 40 days with no food at all. Sure hope they find him.
Report Post »Professional Infidel
Posted on May 7, 2011 at 7:47pmShe’s still got a double chin?? perhaps the mix was chittlins.
Report Post »Restored One
Posted on May 7, 2011 at 7:59pmWow, there are a lot of people here saying some really mean stuff! Get a grip people!
Report Post »LOOKING_BOTH_WAYS
Posted on May 7, 2011 at 8:17pmeating snow to get water, ya right. Snow is 10 % water and 90% air. she would have to eat about a Gallon of snow to get 1 pint of water. and its a good way to get Hypothermia.
Report Post »oldoldtimer
Posted on May 7, 2011 at 8:18pmWere they using a GPS? There have been several instances of GPS leading people into primitve desolate areas and also getting them lost.People do not pay attention to land marks when following A GPS. They very reason I will not own one. Map and compass and my own skills.
Report Post »SlimnRanger
Posted on May 7, 2011 at 8:29pmAn amazing story i do hope they find her husband
Report Post »SpeckChaser
Posted on May 7, 2011 at 8:53pm***********ATTENTION**************
****************JZS******************
Bigotry… Racism… Commonsense … Call it what you will but I will not willingly subject my wife/kids to dangerous situations. Doesn’t matter if it’s white, black, brown, purple, blue, or green. If that offends you…GET OFFENDED!!!!!!
The absence of your answer is what stood out to me. Did I guess right by assuming your superior moral compass and “non-bigoted” views allowed your wife/kids to be put on the plane with the terrorist resembling passengers? Guess you have not heard the one about cutting off your nose to spite your face.
I live in a predominantly white city and stay aware of my surroundings 100% of the time. The ironic thing is I find myself looking towards white people as possible threats. Because where I live, chance are if something bad happens it’s going to be at the hands of a white person, not some black, brown, or Arab boogie man as you apparently believe. Is a white guy who profiles other whites another example of my bigotry? Danger is not limited to one color. The sooner you realize this, the better off you will be.
The only time you would let this argument slide is if it walks like conservative, talks like a conservative…It’s a bigot, racist, homophobe, misogynist.
Report Post »82dAirborne
Posted on May 7, 2011 at 9:43pm@SpeckChaser
I think I can speak for a lot of the Blazers when I ask: What the heck are you talking about? Even if you were close to being on the above topic…. Your post still doesn’t make much sense. If you have a problem with a troll or if you happen to be a troll take it outside!
Report Post »marine249
Posted on May 7, 2011 at 10:13pmSPECKCHASER
“ HUH” say again
Report Post »randy
Posted on May 7, 2011 at 11:04pmI don’t believe it.
Report Post »Believe none of what you hear and half of what you see.
Skan
Posted on May 8, 2011 at 8:37amDid you just become a creep or were you born this way?
Report Post »