Couple, dog stranded in blizzard for days with no food, water, Northern California deputies say
The Nevada County Sheriff’s Office rescued three people stranded in heavy snow this week after a weekend blizzard unleashed more than 10 feet of snow in the High Sierra amid billowing gusts topping 100 mph.
The Nevada County Sheriff’s Office rescued a couple Sunday whose four-wheeler broke down outside of Nevada City, deputies said. They had no food, water or cellphone service as they sat Friday and Saturday in a truck while this season’s most severe storm buffeted slopes, deputies said.
A 45-year-old Colfax man, his girlfriend and dog huddled inside their truck until the man hiked to find cellphone service and called 911 just before 8:35 a.m. Sunday. The call dropped more than once, leading dispatchers to pinpoint his coordinates on a map before finding him near Lowell Road, deputies said.
The Nevada County Search and Rescue team and a Nevada Irrigation District official — who also worked with the Sheriff’s Office — responded to help the couple and their dog by 12:06 p.m.
In the second incident, a snowmobiler trekked through Johnson Canyon in Truckee on Tuesday in hopes of gliding over the Warren Lake Trail, the Sheriff’s Office said. But the man got stuck on the trail about 2 p.m. with a low cellphone battery amid freezing temperatures, deputies said.
The 36-year-old man from Nevada had packed a backup cellphone battery, a blanket and water while he awaited rescue.
A party of 26 first-responders — from the Nevada and Placer sheriff’s offices and the Tahoe Nordic Search and Rescue team — found the man just before 8 p.m.
The Tahoe Nordic team had also helped retrieve stranded people in two separate incidents on Tuesday, the Sheriff’s Office said.
Before the blizzard, the Placer County Sheriff’s Office retrieved a skier who veered off a designated route Feb. 23 in Palisades Tahoe, according to Sgt. David Smith, a spokesman with the Sheriff’s Office. A video from deputies showed the skier waving his ski poles to flag down deputies.
A Falcon 30 helicopter airlifted a man within an hour of him getting stuck, Smith said.
This story was originally published March 7, 2024 at 9:53 AM.
