A Texas family relying on a GPS route to get to Norwood from Durango ended up lost on a snowpacked mountain road, spending the night in wintry conditions in the San Juan Mountains and kicking off a robust search and rescue mission.
According to the San Miguel County Sheriff’s Office, a man and his wife, both in their 30s, were traveling with their 12-year-old daughter from El Paso to Norwood in a rented truck to deliver furniture.
After reaching Durango, the Texas family apparently was following a GPS route that led them to a road where they became stuck in the snow Monday morning.
Around 7 p.m. Monday, a concerned family member reported their relatives missing, kicking off a multi-county search into the night that was unsuccessful, the Sheriff’s Office said.
On Tuesday morning, San Miguel County Undersheriff Eric Berg took his personal aircraft to the skies to look for the family, locating the rented truck around 9 a.m. A few minutes later, the family was spotted a couple of miles from the truck, walking toward Dolores on a Forest Service road near Belmear Mountain.
It appears, based on where the family was found, they went off route at some point nearly halfway between Dolores and Norwood, about 35 miles south of Norwood.
Once contacted by authorities, the family said they tried to dig the truck out, but were unsuccessful. Overnight, they ran the engine for heat and covered themselves in furniture blankets. According to a weather station in the area, temperatures dipped down to about 17 degrees.
In the morning, the family wrapped their tennis shoes with shipping plastic and began to walk in the deep snow, the Sheriff’s Office said.
“The family is lucky to have had moderate temperatures and our ability to use aircraft to locate them,” Sheriff Bill Masters said in a statement. “But people need to remember that electronic GPS systems are not always the best guide. At this time of year especially, roads like these are not always passable.”
Masters also said it’s important to have warm-weather gear and extra food and water in your vehicle in case of emergencies.
After being missing for about 24 hours, the family was found and no one suffered serious injuries.
Along with the San Miguel Sheriff’s Office, San Miguel Search and Rescue, Dolores County Sheriff’s Office and Search and Rescue, Montezuma County Sheriff’s Office, Colorado Parks and Wildlife, and Colorado State Patrol participated in the search.
jromeo@durangoherald.com
