Woman Says Her First Ski Trip Will Be Her Last : Pair Snowbound Three Days as Mercury Hits 34 Below

Terri Rishel said Wednesday that her first skiing trip will be her last after she and a companion spent three days snowbound in a car on a mountain highway while the temperature dropped as low as 34 below zero.

“If someone told me that was possible, knowing the area and the temperatures, I wouldn’t have believed they could have survived,” state police Capt. M.P. Koerner said.

Rishel, a nurse who turned 29 during the unexpected camp-out, and William Gardner Jr., 28, both of Charleston, were rescued by helicopter Tuesday exhausted but uninjured.

Their adventure began Saturday with a trip to Snowshoe Ski Resort in the mountainous eastern part of the state.

‘One Try Is Enough’

“I’ve never been (skiing) before,” Rishel said. “We never did get there. I think one try is enough.”

The closest they got was the Highland Scenic Highway in Pocahontas County, several miles short of Snowshoe.

Gardner, an executive with a lawn and tractor company, said his four-wheel-drive vehicle became stuck in snowdrifts on the two-lane highway, an alternate route that winds through a remote area of the Appalachian Mountains in the Monongahela National Forest east of Richwood.

The couple kept the engine running most of the first night and the heater kept them warm, Gardner said. But then the gasoline ran out.

Burned Oily Rags

Gardner and Rishel had only a thin sleeping bag and ski clothes to keep them warm. Gardner tore foam from the back seat and placed it under their sleeping bag, and they wrapped their feet in tape from the first-aid kit.

Gardner also placed oily rags in beer cans and burned them inside the vehicle.

“They don’t burn long enough, but they take the chill off,” he said.

Outside, the temperature fell steadily, reaching 34 below in the mountains by early Monday.

“We talked a lot,” Rishel said. “We talked about dying, why we weren’t suffering, how to keep warm. We tried to keep our sense of humor.”

Vehicle Encased in Ice

Rishel said the vehicle, almost covered by snow, became encased in ice.

“Icicles were hanging over the ceiling. It turned into a freezer,” she said.

Gardner said they drank from a half-frozen stream beside the truck and ate peanuts and barbecue-flavored potato chips.

Sunday was Rishel’s birthday.

“I blew out one of those cans and he said, ‘Happy birthday,’ ” she said. “It was a heck of a way to spend your birthday.”

Gardner’s father, William Gardner Sr. of Charleston, said he became worried when his son didn’t call Saturday evening. He called state police and the state Department of Natural Resources on Sunday. On Monday, authorities sent two helicopters looking for the truck and one of them found it.