- Jake Schmitt crawled and dragged himself for 11 hours after a rollover.
- He suffered multiple injuries but managed to reach his truck for help.
- Schmitt emphasizes the importance of self-rescue preparedness and physical fitness.
OGDEN — An avid hunter said he crawled and dragged himself for 11 hours across a nearly four-mile stretch of brush in the Uinta Mountains to reach his truck after a rollover in his side-by-side left him badly injured.
Jake Schmitt said he was scouting for deer in a familiar area near Whitney Reservoir on July 20 when he spotted a deer he wanted to pursue.
"That's when I started to go on further trails, a little more higher up, a little more treacherous," Schmitt said Wednesday.
Schmitt said that at one point, he tried to carefully reverse course and go a different way, when his rear right tire went over the edge.
"I noticed at a very slow but fast rate my front left starts coming off, and that's when I realized there's no hope," Schmitt recalled. "I'm just slowly going over like a capsizing ship, and it just went with me and my body."
Schmitt said the side-by-side rolled down the hillside, partially rolling over him on the first roll and ejecting him on the second.
Though he never hit his head and never lost consciousness, Schmitt suffered significant injuries.
"I have a broken left (tibia) and (fibula), two fractured ankles, a couple broken ribs, dislocated stuff and bruises and scratches everywhere you can have it," Schmitt said.
His belongings were spread around the hillside. He couldn't find his phone, and he was too injured to expend too much energy searching.
He did, however, find his duct tape.
"I laid my leg on part of the roll cage that had broken off, put a stick on it, duct taped it, took my belt off and then really tightened it all with my belt," he explained.
From there, it became a matter of will.
"Everybody wants to act tough, but I wanted to give up every time, all the time — but it's like, either I die here or I figure it out, how to keep going," Schmitt said. "That was it."
Schmitt said he alternated between dragging himself and crawling as he navigated his way back to his truck.
During the 11-hour journey, it grew dark, and his only visibility came from the light on the collar of his dog.
"That little circle on his collar — I turned it on, and he would heel," Schmitt explained. "He was very well trained, so he would heel when I needed to see where I was going and see if I could drink water out of the creek, and we would drink water out of the creek together."
I couldn't have done it without (my dog). It was like having your best friend there just to kind of nudge you like, 'keep going, keep going.'
–Jake Schmitt
Buddy, the 6-year-old German short-hair pointer, was at his side and offering encouragement when Schmitt couldn't find any himself.
"I couldn't have done it without him," Schmitt said. "It was like having your best friend there just to kind of nudge you like, 'keep going, keep going,' you know."
Eventually, Schmitt made it to his truck and drove to Oakley, where he said he found a girl at a diner and got her to call 911.
Schmitt said he faced a lengthy recovery and hefty medical bills.
Friends set up a GoFundMe* to help him with expenses.
The hunter said his experience is a good example of why it's important to be in shape and to be prepared when heading outdoors.
"No matter the gadget that you can have, you've got to be prepared to self-rescue and do everything with nothing," Schmitt said. "When you're cartwheeling down a cliff and then you come with broken stuff back to the world, you have to rely on only you, and if you're not in good enough shape, if you're not in safe enough mind discipline, you're not going to get out, so be prepared to self-rescue."
*KSL.com does not assure that the money deposited into the account will be applied for the benefit of the persons named as beneficiaries. If you are considering a deposit to the account, you should consult your own advisers and otherwise proceed at your own risk.
