Man trapped by snow for days runs out of fuel trying to stay warm, SD rescuers say

A man went out to gather firewood and disappeared — finding himself trapped in the snow and unable to get home, according to authorities in South Dakota.

He was last heard from on Monday, Dec. 12, KELO reported, before his vehicle got stuck near the South Dakota and Wyoming state line.

For the first couple of days, the man was able to keep warm, according to a Dec. 15 Facebook post from the Pennington County Sheriff’s Office.

But by Wednesday morning, he had run out of fuel.

“Cell service being very poor in that area, he could not make phone calls and could not (reliably) text,” officials said, “but (he) was finally able to get enough signal to send a single, short text message for help before his phone battery died.”

First responders were called, and they used data from his cellphone provider to help narrow down a search grid, according to the news release. They managed to narrow the search to a 20-mile radius around a cell tower — “still a very large area.”

While rescuers were able to use that data along with information from his text to find a starting point, the search was hindered by recent snow, officials said. The south part of the search area received about 3 inches of snow, though the north area had about 4 feet of snow.

The sheriff’s office partnered with several agencies, and Pennington County Search and Rescue found the man at about 8 p.m. Thursday, officials said. A snowcat rescue vehicle was used to get the man to safety, and he was taken to a hospital for medical attention.

Shouts lead rescuer to skier buried chest-deep in snow by avalanche, Utah officials say

Snowmobiler plunges through ice, is stranded 5 hours on frigid Alaska river, cops say

80-year-old hunter tracking deer fires shots to tell wife he’s lost, Michigan cops say