Just a few months ago we caught wind of a woman who managed to survive the Australian outback for six days on nothing but pasta sauce, windscreen wiper water, and pee (ugh).
And now we’ve got a new bonkers survival story that is essentially a wintery companion piece to that Aussie outback tale.
Jeremy Taylor and his beloved dog Ally were driving around in his 4WD in the forests of Oregon when he became stuck in the snow. A day of waiting only resulted in more snow and Jeremy was unable to get unstuck.
While he tried to walk his way out, the deep snow was too much of a hurdle (literally) so Jeremy decided to wait it out with Ally in his car instead.
Artist’s rendition of Jeremy getting stuck in the snow.
This wait ultimately lasted five days, during which Jeremy kept himself and Ally warm by periodically starting his car. At this point you’re probably thinking “why didn’t he just call someone?”
The answer to that is because Jeremy didn’t have a phone with him according to the Deschutes County Sheriff’s Office. Not to rag on Jeremy for being a bit of an idiot for not bringing his phone, but he was a bit of an idiot for not bringing his phone.
While Jeremy had plenty of snow to get water from, food was a little bit scarcer. In the end, he ate nothing but a few hot sauce packets he had lying around for those five days. Those packets probably wouldn’t have done much, especially since humans can survive weeks without food, but hey it’s better than nothing. I’m not even going to go into the repercussions of what would happen to your bowels after eating only hot sauce for days because that’s not a thought I want in my brain.
With a source of water that doesn’t involve pee and a food option that didn’t involve eating his dog, Jeremy could’ve been in a worst spot.
At least the hot sauce would’ve helped kept him warm.
A snowmobile rider eventually found Jeremy and Ally, and the pair were eventually found to be safe and sound by authorities.
In perhaps the understatement of 2019 so far, the Deschutes County Sheriff’s Office reported that Jeremy and Ally were in good condition but were “hungry after being stuck in the snow for five days”.
I’m not 100% sure what the moral of this story is to be honest but I learned that you should always carry a phone and some hot sauce with you if you ever go somewhere with a heap of snow.