Man Survives After Being Trapped In Snow-Covered SUV For Nearly A Week

BISHOP, CA — From the air, it looked like a rock. But upon closer inspection, two California Highway Patrol officers soon discovered it was what — or rather, whom— they’d been searching for. After six nights and nearly seven days, the man who’d gotten caught up in recent storms while driving from California to Nevada, unable to move or communicate for help, was finally going home.

On Thursday, the CHP’s Inland Division Air Operations Unit rescued an 81-year-old who holed up inside his Ford Escape for nearly a week, surviving on snow and some croissants.

"I just really believe it was a miracle," Joe Jouret told Patch on Friday, the day after his brother was found.

Jouret said the crew, identified by the CHP as Officers Gus Aguirre and Travis Olson, spotted his brother as they were headed back to refuel at the Bishop airport after searching for hours in a remote section of California near Death Valley.

"[The pilot] was about out of gas," Jouret said. "But he looked down and he saw what looked like a rock as he looked down. He had another man with him in the helicopter…and as they looked down there, it was [my brother’s] car. He was almost buried in snow, but not quite. He took his hand out of the window and waved it."

No one had heard from Jouret's brother since Feb. 24, when he left his second home in Big Pine to head back to Gardnerville, he said. Big Pine is located about 15 miles south of Bishop, and the man planned to take SR-168 back to Nevada when powerful storms hit the region.

Family reported him missing four days later, on Feb. 28, to the Inyo County Sheriff’s Office.

"InyoSAR responded immediately, assessed the situation and developed a plan to search an area along Hwy 168," sheriff’s spokeswoman Carma Roper said in an email to Patch. "Due to conditions at the time, resources were focused on preparing for a mission early the following morning."

But on Wednesday morning, another storm delayed rescue efforts "due to safety concerns" for rescue personnel, she said.

"A second attempt in the afternoon was also unsuccessful," she said.

On Thursday, crews tried again. The sheriff’s office, with help from Caltrans and two teams of four search-and-rescue members each, headed out on the ground to Deep Springs Valley in a "focused search" near Gilbert Pass.

The California Highway Patrol searched by air.

By noon Thursday, "CHP forensics reported an identified cellular ping," from the day the man went missing, Roper said. That helped crews focus their search in an area near Death Valley Road, "a rough road running south of the 168 and leading into Death Valley National Park."

"After searching for over 6 hours, CHP Officers Olson and Aguirre located the missing party waving his arm from his snow-covered vehicle, which was buried along a section [of road] that had been closed due to the storm and heavy snow accumulation," California Highway Patrol Officer Ramon Duran said.

After refueling, Olson and Aguirre circled back to pull the elderly man to safety.

"They came back and they hovered over his car about three feet… because they couldn't go down to the road, because the snow was too high," Jouret told Patch. "So the other guy in the helicopter was harnessed up, he went out of the helicopter, went down and got [my brother] out of his vehicle, they climbed back into the helicopter and then they flew to Bishop Airport."

The man — who his brother described as being active his whole life and "still pretty spry" — was taken by ambulance to an area hospital, where he was released just hours later, officials said.

"He was smiling all the way back to the airport," Jouret said. "He was happy to get out of that situation."