Shared GPS data leads Nevada County rescue team to a group of people stuck in snow
The Nevada County Sheriff’s Search and Rescue Team on Monday found four people missing overnight after their utility terrain vehicles got stuck in an area blanketed by more than 18 inches of new snow.
Sheriff’s officials said the group told family where they were headed before they left, a decision that likely saved their lives.
The group left in their two UTVs from the mountain town of Washington in Nevada County early Sunday morning, according to a Facebook post from the sheriff’s search and rescue team. About midnight, the team was called to search for missing group who had not returned.
The search and rescue team quickly determined the search area would consist of two counties and about 214 square miles, sheriff’s officials said. Search teams from Placer, El Dorado, Mono, Sierra, along with others, were called to help in what sheriff’s officials called a “needle-in-a-haystack search.”
About 10 a.m. Monday, one of the search teams found the four missing people and their two UTVs. Sheriff’s officials said the group survived a storm that dropped about 18 to 24 inches of snow in a short time.
Before they headed out Sunday morning, the group gave a family member a GPX file, which contained GPS data of the route they planned to take. Sheriff’s officials said that “most certainly saved four lives today.”
“Please please please let someone know where you are going, what route you will be taking and when you plan on returning ... it just might save your life,” sheriff’s officials wrote in the Facebook post.
