Salt Lake Telegram | 1939-02-15 | Page 1 | Flier Battles Drifts 3 Days to Reach Safety

University Fir Scenes; Humeri Worker I : aT-- V' - ear- v rv ! ri ; 1 V- - fc'' v-.-r .-w .-foX .-llri ' yr-J i , i i v;-v.-iC' -f' k, AT UNIVERSITY BLAZE AND CHEMIST WHO NARROWLY MISSED FLAMING DEATH Above, exterior of metallurgical building; below, left, Interior ef ruins; right, Haxeltea R, Nebeker Jr. Flier Battles Drifts 3 Days to Reach Safety COEUR D'ALENE, Idaho, Feb. IS (AP) Roy Shreck, Spokane weather flier, missing since early Sunday, reached Coeur d'Alene this morning and announced he had been walking three days and nights without food. Shreck said he had crashed in heavy timber on a ftOOO-foot ridge near Wolf Lodge, 25 mllea east of here. He took the compass from the plane and started for Coaur d'Alene, through snow that waa at times over his head, and in cold so intense he had to keep moving to prevent freezing. "I never slept more than half an hour all together," ha aald, "it was too cold." "The worst of It all whs not hav- ) Ing any food. My atomach atartd going bad th second day. I tried to eat anow but it tasted like pine needles. That wasn't very satisfactory satis-factory Tha first water ha hsd was about 3 o'clock yesterday, when he found a creek in a gully, he said. The pilot reported he had reached tha cabin of an outlying wood cutter, cut-ter, Norman Erickson, 17 miles from tOonllniiH en Past Two) MJolumn Plvn SPOKANE FLIER REACHES-SAFETY (Continues Prom Fate On.) Coeur d'Alene last night and had remained there. Erlckson and a workman employed by blm brought the pilot to town this morning. Searching planee flsw directly over him "doxsns of times.'' Shreck said, but thsy couldn't see him because of the heavy timber. When he went down, because of the heavy load of ics on his plans, Shreck said hs was directly on the east radio beam from Spokane and never was lost, so far as position was concerned. "I got so tired and discouraged, I Just about gave up, though," he said. Ha setimated ha had walked 28 miles through the snow before reaching the Erickaon cabin. The thick growth of trssa In which hs landed cushioned thi shock and prevented him from being be-ing Injured, Shreck said. Today bs was nsar exhaustion and said his fset were badly swollen but he waa otherwise okeh. "You never know what you can do until you really get up against It," hs added.