Missing driver found after 6 days stuck in the snow near Death Valley

The trip would have been 150 miles on Highway 395 -- but that road was closed north of Bishop because of whiteout conditions.

A driver who tried to circumvent a road closure during a California storm was rescued after spending almost a week in his snowbound car in a remote area near Death Valley.

The man was reported missing last Tuesday, Feb. 28, four days after he had left Big Pine with a destination of Gardnerville, Nev., according to Inyo County Search and Rescue.

The trip would have been 150 miles on Highway 395 — but on Feb. 24 that road was closed north of Bishop because of whiteout conditions, the California Department of Transportation said. The driver apparently intended to take the two-lane Highway 168 east of Big Pine and connect to a Nevada highway.

Heavy snow and high winds hampered search efforts until Thursday, March 2, when two ground teams and a helicopter focused on the Gilbert Pass area, about 30 miles east of Big Pine.

Around noon that day, the California Highway Patrol reported that on the previous Friday — the day the driver left Big Pine — a cellular ping associated with his phone was received from the area of Death Valley Road, which forks south off Highway 168.

A CHP helicopter made a search of that road and identified a vehicle partly buried in snow. As the helicopter approached, a person inside the car lowered the window and began waving.

After returning to Bishop to set up for extraction, the crew rescued the driver, who was the missing person. He was taken to the Bishop hospital for treatment of undisclosed conditions and released that evening.