A couple of days before she was rescued, a search helicopter flew right over where the woman, 52, was stranded -- but missed her.
Heavy snow fell across the Sierra Nevada Mountains in California on April 21, 2022.
Just yogurt -- and snow. That’s what a 52-year-old woman subsisted on while stranded in the snow for six agonizing days in the remote mountain region of Northern California, authorities said.
Sheena Gullett’s terrifying ordeal started on April 14 when the pickup truck that the 52-year-old and her friend Justin Lonich, 48, were riding in became stuck in the heavy snow in Lassen County near Little Valley.
“During the six days she was stranded, she rationed a six-pack of yogurt, eating one per day,” said Lt. Dave Woginrich, of the Lassen County Sheriff’s Office. “She did not have any water and had been eating snow.”
The person, in the end, who came to Gullett’s rescue, Sgt. Dustin Russell of the Sheriff's Office, said authorities are often called out to assist stranded hikers or motorists in those parts.
“But it’s not common to find them alive and for that long,” Russell told AccuWeather.
Gullett, bundled up on top but wearing light pants and socks, endured freezing temperatures throughout her lengthy ordeal as an air and ground search team tried desperately to reach her in the thick woods and snowy, rugged terrain.
Low temperatures hovered in the low teens during the initial nights before turning a bit milder, into the low 20s, in the final four days, according to AccuWeather meteorologists.
In describing what happened during those frightening six days, Russell said the two had just wrapped up a job hauling away scrap metal from a property and were headed home to Little Valley -- about 160 miles north of Sacramento and 60 miles west of the Nevada border -- when they got stranded on April 14.
“They were coming back at night and [Gullett] said the visibility was bad from the snow,” he said.
Lonich and Gullett told officials they decided to wait out the storm that was passing through the area, spending the night in their car on a dirt road off Highway 44, between Harvey and Patterson mountains.
The next morning they discovered the car’s battery had died while Lonich was trying to charge his cellphone, so they ventured out to get help, heading back toward the highway. Along the way, however, Gullett started falling behind and the soles of her boots started to give way. Lonich, not realizing the two had become separated, went back to look for his friend but to no avail due to the heavy snowfall.
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Lonich spent a two-day journey through the wilderness on foot in an effort to reach Highway 44, seeking shelter and building a campfire in between the progress he slowly made back.
On April 17, three days after becoming stranded, Lonich was able to flag down a vehicle and got a ride into Susanville, where he was able to report Gullett missing to authorities.
A search-and-rescue team comprising U.S. Forest Service, California Highway Patrol and Sheriff’s Office personnel quickly set out and combed the area on the ground and via helicopter, but there was no sign of Gullett or the vehicle. Snowy weather hampered an air search one day.
During all this time, Gullett was struggling to stay alert and alive as heavy snow was falling rapidly around her most days. The six-pack of yogurt was all that was left from an earlier grocery stop for also ribs and soda that she and Lonich had picked up before getting stuck.
“What made it most challenging was that Justin was completely unfamiliar with the area and the roads,” which made it difficult for the rescue crew to narrow down a search area, Russell said, adding that Gullett didn't have a cellphone and even if she did, cell service was non-existent in those parts of the state.
At one point, Lonich rode along with a sheriff’s deputy to better pinpoint the location where the two had abandoned the vehicle.
Russell was able to piece together some of the tidbits of information Lonich had provided to locate the truck -- and a visibly shaken Gullett -- several hours later and 12-and-a-half miles from the highway.
“She jumped out of the truck, stopped in her tracks and just broke down,” said Russell, who ran to her and gave her a big hug.
“She said, ‘I’m so glad that you found me. I thought I was dead,’” Russell recalled.
Gullett said that she had seen “the helicopter fly over a few days earlier, but because she was in a heavily wooded area they were unable to see her,” according to Russell.
She was taken to the closest medical facility for evaluation and is now back at home.
Gullett could not be reached for comment on her lengthy ordeal.
Several inches of snow were already on the ground when the pair set out for Little Valley that day. But their trip quickly turned dire with the approach of more wintry weather.
At about the time they became stranded, the California Department of Transportation was sending out snow advisories to travelers for several highways in northern parts of the state, including highways 44 and 299.
Three separate storm systems came through that area, from April 14-20, dumping much more snow, according to AccuWeather meteorologists, making it all the more difficult for the pair.
“A total of 1 to 3 feet may have fallen across the highest terrain in Northern California. In the area they were in, amounts may have been a bit lower, but it seems plausible they could have picked up a foot or two of snow over the course of the six days,” said Adam Douty, an AccuWeather senior meteorologist.
By the time she was rescued, there was a 2-foot snowbank on one side of Gullett's truck.
In the end, the abundance of snow and Gullett’s quick-thinking resourcefulness may have helped in her survival.
Her rescuer called it "amazing" that she managed to live through it.
As he was walking toward the truck after spotting it, he said, "I was dreading the worst and hoping for the best."
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