Just 40 miles from Nome, stuck in the snow Posted: December 4, 2011 - 12:10am By KYLE HOPKINS ANCHORAGE DAILY NEWS Clifton Vial, 52, climbed into the cab of his Toyota Tacoma on Monday night in Nome to see how far a road winding to the north would take him. More than 40 miles out of town, at about 9:30 that night, he found out. As Pink Floyd’s “Echoes” played on the stereo and temperature dipped well below zero in the darkness, Vial’s pickup plunged into a snowdrift. “I made an attempt at digging myself out and realized how badly I was stuck,” Vial told The Anchorage Daily News. He was wearing tennis shoes, jeans and a $30 jacket from Sears. “I would have been frostbit before I ever got the thing out of there.” Vial found himself alone near Salmon Lake, on road that doubles as a snowmachine trail in the winter and stretches inland from the Bering Sea city. Far beyond the reach of his cellphone, Vial slipped into a fleece sleeping bag liner and wrapped a bath towel around his feet. He occasionally started the truck to run the heater and listen to the radio. Was anybody talking about him? Did they know he was missing? By the third day, Vial said, the truck was nearly out of gas. Normally Vial carries a sleeping bag, extra gasoline and other survival gear in the 2000 Toyota, he said. But on this trip he had few supplies, no food and no water. Even his dogs, a pair of labs that usually accompany him on drives, stayed home. Vial kept busy trying to think of ways to stay warm. His wife and daughter were out of town, searchers said. No one would know he was gone until he failed to show up for work at 3:30 p.m. Tuesday. No one could reach Vial on the phone. Co-workers patrolling the town that night found no sign of his pickup. Handeland called police on Wednesday when Vial missed work for a second day. The Nome Volunteer Fire Department was alerted and Vial’s co-workers and volunteer rescuers drove surrounding roads in search of the Toyota. One searcher drove 41 miles along Kougarok Road — just a few miles from where Vial sat shivering and stranded in his pickup -- but saw no tracks. The searcher turned back as daylight disappeared and the road conditions worsened, Handeland said. Troopers joined the search. Rescuers looked for Vial on the ground and from the air, in planes and from a helicopter. “When we get called on situations like this, it’s a needle in a haystack,” said Jim West Jr., a Nome fire department captain and search and rescue coordinator. For Vial, the cold was worse than the hunger, he said. Still he scoured the pickup in vain for food. His only provisions: Snow, and a few cans of Coors Light that had frozen solid in the cab. Vial ate the beers like cans of beans. “I cut the lids off and dug it out with a knife,” he said. The overnight low temperature in Nome dropped from about 12 below Monday night — not counting windchill — to 17 below on Wednesday morning, said National Weather Service meteorologist Charles Aldrich. Battling for warmth, Vial wrapped a bath towel around his feet and placed another over his knees and thighs. He shook his ankles and knees to keep moving. He stuffed rags in his clothes and unraveled tissue paper, jamming it down around his feet. The wind rumbled like airplane engines, Vial said. He thought about his daughter, and about what would happen if no one found him in time. “I tried to sleep when I could,” Vial said, “but I knew that I might not wake up.” When he did close his eyes, Vial said, strange and vivid images appeared. “Saw my daughter. Saw my job. Saw some things that didn’t look like people.” He would picture himself driving around Nome, saying hello to friends, only to snap awake and find himself back in the truck, freezing. At one point Vial decided he would only fire up the pickup’s engine once a day. “(The gas tank) was on ‘E’ and the gas light was coming on,” he said. Vial never heard the rescuers arrive. It was early Thursday afternoon, three days after he first became stranded in the snow, when they pulled up behind his pick-up. A co-worker and another volunteer opened the door to the truck, he said. They gave him a Snickers bar — it seemed too dry to eat, he said — and an orange soda. Vial described the more than 60-hour ordeal in a short phone interview Friday from Nome. His daughter was home from Anchorage. He planned to visit a doctor Friday afternoon, then return to work. ___________________________________________________________________ This fellow can thank fis "Lucky Stars" for Friends and co-Workers" for his life.... This country will KILL You if you do NOT take it seriously. ......
You Can't Fix Stupid As General Honore might say - this guy is "Stuck on stupid" and lucky to be alive.
Going unprepared into ANY wilderness can kill. Not just Alaska. The southeast swamps, the westernmountains, the deserts, winter up in the northeast. Lots of people don't get that second chance. I keep food, water, sleeping bag and other gear in my van, and some water and survival gear on my bike at ALL times.
When travelling in the back country where it is isolated wouldn't it make sense to have an EPIRB? Chances are that the sound system in his vehicle is worth more than the cost of an EPIRB. Instead of 60hours of dire hardship and a near death experience, he could have been home much much earlier and it would have saved his community much expense and risk to the safety and welfare of searchers if the searchers were looking in the area he was located rather than the areas he wasn't. Stupid is as stupid does I guess.....perhaps next time he'll put just that little extra effort in claiming a well deserved Darwin Award.
A Freakin' Idiot. How much money and manhours were devoted to his ultimate discovery and rescue. He should have to pay restitution for every dollar and do community service for every manhour. Too Harsh? I think not. He could be dead. Others who put their lives on the line looking for him could be dead. Others who were deprived a timely response by first responders while the first responders were looking for him, and thus were harmed or died owe that to him. He is a walking talking hemorrhoid.
-17degrees!!Hell,for Nome that aint even gettin cold yet. Story sounds alot like someone was bored,got schnockerd,and decided to take a joy ride. Frozen beer come to mind to anyone else?? Matt
I watched a piece on Discovery last night where the temp was a balmy -50! Now that's entertainment!...and, they get some strong winds on top of that, only a few yards off the international dateline...watching the polar bears stroll about...I wonder if the polar bears know they need permisison to visit Russia? But yeah, cold is a real nasty...like extreme heat. The guy is LUCKY! Most are not....
After years of SAR it suprises me not. Just as dumb, or worse, than the 'Man VS Wild' types. Put alot of these IDIOTS in body bags and never shed a tear. The kids with them tore me up.....
Just the oppisite here in Az. About 25 years ago, while out visiting az. from mich or some such place , an older couple , first day here, in summer, went for a hike. They died about 100 yards from their car. Works both ways
