The rescue Saturday of David Snider, who became lost in Olympic National Park, was just the end of an amazing story that began five days earlier when the 54-year-old hiker took a shortcut, fell and lost his glasses.
“At that point, I was bushwhacking rather blindly,” he said.
Snider talked to KIRO 7 on Tuesday to fill in the gaps of his four-day ordeal that had him navigating the dangerous snowy slopes of the Olympic Mountains.
“I’d see what looked like a meadow, and when I got there, it was a drop-off into an avalanche chute, so (I would) backtrack.”
He said that three or four times, he thought he was going to die after getting stuck on extremely steep slopes.
“I’d lay on one slope for an hour with my heart racing, feeling myself sliding,” he said.
But he forced himself to keep going.
“I had to make it from plant to plant to hang onto,” he said.
On the last day, he heard what he said was the best noise of his life.
“I had actually had a fantasy of helicopters for a couple hours, then I stopped in an open place thinking, ‘Maybe I’ll see helicopters,’ and here they came, but they couldn’t see me,” Snider said.
He was above where the choppers were flying, but slowly made his way down so they could see him and rescue him.
“Up we went, spinning to the helicopter,” he said.
Snider said he’s thankful to be alive and plans to return to the mountains.
“I’ll be up there, but more sanely,” he said.