Unser’s Ordeal Is Over

Forced to eat snow for nourishment and build a snow cave for shelter, auto racing great Bobby Unser and a friend fought for survival for two nights in rugged mountains after their snowmobiles broke down.

“It was very frightening,” Unser, a three-time winner of the Indianapolis 500, told KOAT-TV of Albuquerque on Sunday morning before unplugging his bedroom phone and going to sleep.

Unser, 63, and Robert Gayton, 36, withstood temperatures of zero to 10 above, with wind chills well below zero.

They began their snowmobile trek Friday morning from Unser’s ranch home at Chama, about 120 miles north of Albuquerque and six miles south of the Colorado state line. Unser’s race veteran brother, Al, and nephew, Al Jr., also have ranches at Chama.

Gayton’s snowmobile broke down first, and after the two doubled up on Unser’s snowmobile, it started sputtering.

“The more it ran, the worse it got,” Unser said. “It just quit on us.”

The two men carried no food or water, but they were dressed in insulated snowmobiling outfits. They hiked into a canyon to avoid wind they estimated at 70 mph and built a snow cave, covering it with branches and filling it with twigs for insulation.

“It took a lot of energy to build it,” Gayton said. “He went in feet first; me, head first. It was small, but it was better because [it provided] heat.

“We were talking through the night. We alternated sleeping some. I got a little, Bobby got a little bit.”

Gayton said they set out hiking again on Saturday morning, through two to four feet of snow, sometimes sinking up to their chests.

Gayton said he and Unser walked all day and found a trail at about 5 p.m.

“We reached the trail by dark,” Gayton said. “We knew it led out. But we still don’t know where.”

Both men tried to quench their thirst with snow, and Unser kept spitting up snow.

“We figured it’s a life-and-death deal here,” Gayton said. “But neither one of us ever thought we were not going to get out of there.”

Late Saturday, they found a barn that had a phone and heater. Gayton estimated that they had walked about 14 miles. Isaac Gallegos, sheriff of Conejos County, Colo., said the pair had ended up a few miles into Colorado after wandering along the eastern slopes of the Continental Divide, where peaks reach 14,000 feet.

After calling for help, they were picked up by Al Unser Sr. and a friend. Police gave them an escort to a clinic in Tierra Amarilla, where they were examined before being sent home Sunday.

Cindi Unser, Bobby Unser’s daughter, said this was not the first time her father was stranded snowmobiling.

“He had this happen about 15 years ago,” she said. “A blizzard moved in on him. He built a snow igloo then.”