Family rescued on remote road

EPHRAIM — A Las Vegas family on their way to an aunt's missionary farewell spent Saturday night on state Route 29, the same remote road that a West Valley couple was traveling a couple of weeks ago when they froze to death.

Like Eldon Reed and Loa Fae Palmer of West Valley City, Karena Fisher got stuck after she ran out of pavement on the mountain road, which runs from Orangeville, Emery County, to Ephraim.

But Fisher's misadventure had a much happier ending. She, her three children and a niece bundled up in extra layers of clothing and periodically turned on their van's engine and heater for warmth.

The next morning, hunters on snowcats spotted them, got the van out of a snowbank and headed back down the paved portion of the road.

Fisher, 39, said she left St. George on Saturday about 2 p.m. headed for Ephraim and the LDS missionary farewell of her aunt and uncle, Melodie and Gerhard Bolli. She was traveling with her children, Brandon, 13; Benjamin, 9; Melissa, 8; and a niece, Meg Bolli, 7.

The Palmers had attended a missionary farewell for their niece in Orangeville before they tried to take S.R. 29 back toward the Wasatch Front. After spending the night, they left their vehicle and apparently tried to walk to Ephraim. Their bodies were found Jan. 29.

Fisher said she was traveling east on Interstate 70 when she missed the exit at Salina that would have put her on U.S. 89 heading to Ephraim.

She exited I-70 at Fremont Junction and state Route 10 in Emery County. On a map, she noticed S.R. 29, which runs from S.R. 10 into Ephraim and decided to take it.

"Obviously, it was the wrong choice," she said.

The road is paved from Orangeville to near the summit of the Wasatch Plateau, part of the Manti-LaSal National Forest. But as the road crosses over the summit and into Sanpete County, it is gravel only and not maintained in winter.

About 5:30 p.m., after passing a sign that read "unimproved road ahead," the trip deteriorated. The snow got deeper and there was nowhere to turn around, she said. Then her van slid off the road and got stuck.

She and her 13-year-old son spent two hours trying to get the vehicle back onto the road, to no avail.

She bundled her children in four layers of clothing and had them share a couple of blankets. Every couple of hours, she turned the engine on and ran the heater.