The Summit County man was reported overdue Thursday, Feb. 22.
He’d been snowmobiling a week before, according to Lt. Alan Siddoway, the Search and Rescue liaison for the Summit County Sheriff’s Office.
That’s when he got stuck the first time. He was in Spring Canyon, near the Trial Lake turnoff from Mirror Lake Highway.
“I'm not quite sure whether he had to walk clear to Kamas or to where he could get phone service,” Siddoway told KPCW, “but he walked quite a distance for quite a long time.”
It’s not clear how far up the canyon he was, but Spring Canyon begins about 17 miles up the highway from Kamas.
The following week, he told his boss he was renting another snowmobile to get his first one unstuck. The man left his information with his employer and set out around 8 a.m., Siddoway estimates.
He didn’t return when he said he would, so his boss went up to the trailhead, saw the man’s truck still there and asked passersby to call search and rescue crews.
Siddoway says they took up their own sleds and a snowcat to find him.
“Actually by that time, he had unstuck his snowmobile,” he said, “and so he was posed with the problem of how to get two out.”
According to the Utah Snow Survey, the snow is over 6 feet deep at Trial Lake. And with the warmer temperatures Siddoway says it’s easy to get bogged down.
The snowmobiler's plan was to tow one sled out with the other, his employer told Siddoway. He was not injured and returned safely to Kamas with the rescuers.
Siddoway thanked the volunteers of Summit County Search and Rescue and says this particular mission ended well.