Authorities say a 73-year-old boater whose raft capsized had survived without food for five days in the snow-covered backcountry of Idaho before giving up and being rescued shortly after he was found.
Thomas Gray’s incredible story of survival began with a three-day journey in the Middle Salmon River earlier this month, during which he ate snow, drank from streams and hiked 23 miles on an injured leg.
According to the Custer County Sheriff’s Office, he was rafting Dagger Falls on May 18 to meet his wife the next day when his boat capsized.
Gray was thrown over the bottom of the waterfall and was forced to swim to shore, unable to reach the raft.
According to the sheriff’s office, a man in his 70s with a leg injury walked to the launch site and took shelter in an outdoor restroom there for two nights.
During the day, he searched the Middle Fork for other floats but didn’t find any.
After finding nothing, Gray walked to another area, Far Creek Pass, and took shelter in a snowmobile club trailer. The trailer had a wood stove, but Gray was unable to find matches, the sheriff said.
Meanwhile, authorities were scrambling to find a missing man after a punctured catamaran was found in the water.
After spending the night in the trailer, Gray continued his journey up the pass but became “too exhausted” to lie down in the snow.
He hadn’t eaten anything in days and was relying on gnawing at snow and drinking water from the creek to survive, according to the sheriff’s office.
“Tom was totally exhausted. He decided this was the end. He just lay down in the snow and said a prayer,” Custer County Sheriff’s Marine Deputy John Howe said. According to KSL.
“He had resigned himself to the fact that this wasn’t going to end well.”
However, as he was lying in the snow, a tourist company owner found him.
Steve and Annie Lentz of Far & Away River Adventures quickly arrived at the scene in a car, and emergency medical personnel accompanied them to perform rescue operations.
“If they hadn’t come, he probably wouldn’t have survived long,” Howe said, according to the station. “When they got him out, his condition was pretty bad.”
Howe reportedly said Gray’s younger brother, Robert Gray, actually died in a raft capsize in the same area in 2022.
“Tom called me and said I was his ‘lifesaver’ and I said, ‘No, I’m your Uber agent,'” Howe said.
