MURRAY, Utah — Dean Ririe had a fish on the line, then made one wrong step that led to a terrifying night trapped up to his waist in a frigid mountain stream.

Ririe wasn't sure if the cold would get him first or if he'd drown, but he was losing hope that anyone would hear his cries for help high up in the mountains of Little Cottonwood Canyon. Someone finally did, and Ririe was still a little stunned a day later as he recounted his ordeal from his hospital bed. "I know the area, and I knew how remote it was," Ririe said Tuesday.

And he knows how lucky he is. An 11-year-old boy who was on a camping trip was looking for firewood Monday morning and heard Ririe's weary calls for help. The boy got his father, who came down to the stream and was shocked to hear how long Ririe had spent in the 55-degree water.

"He says, 'You've been here all night?' " Ririe said. "They were just out looking for firewood. I'm lucky they found me."

Ririe spent nearly 18 hours in the icy water and was still in obvious pain Tuesday. His voice was quiet and raspy, still strained from hours and hours of yelling through the pitch darkness in the mountain canyon just southeast of Salt Lake City. Ririe choked up several times as he recalled the most frightening moments to a group of reporters who packed the small hospital room.

He may still lose his right foot to amputation, but the 52-year-old truck driver survived something much more serious in hypothermia.

Jody Carter, a nurse practitioner with the trauma unit at Intermountain Medical Center, said Ririe's body temperature had dropped 33 degrees below normal — about 98.6 degrees — before he arrived by helicopter Monday morning. "He was in a bad situation," Carter said.

Ririe was fishing in Little Cottonwood Creek, not far below the ski resorts of Alta and Snowbird, which have a base altitude 8,100 feet above sea level. Water that flows from the 11,000-foot peaks is numbingly cold, even during the hottest months of summer.

It might be refreshing for a quick splash during a hike, but can be deadly over an extended period of time. Ririe got stuck around 5:30 p.m. Sunday and wasn't found until about 16 hours later. It took another 90 minutes to get him free of the rocks and flown to the hospital.

Just hours before, Ririe said his hope was waning even as daylight approached. He thought the chances of somebody happening by where he was in the creek or hearing his cries over the gurgling water were slim.

He was exhausted after spending hours trying to get his foot free. The rocks wouldn't budge, and he was unable to pull himself free with dead tree branches.

Ririe shivered through the night, tucking his hands inside the bib of his waders to try to keep them warm, but the waders sprung a leak during Ririe's struggle and filled quickly with the achingly cold water.

He said he rested his head periodically on a boulder, but stayed awake through it all. "I was afraid to fall asleep. If I was to fall asleep, I might have sunk in," he said. "I was more worried about passing out than staying awake."

Ririe's wife, Tracy, and their three children were at his bedside Tuesday. Tracy said she stayed up all night Sunday, checking her husband's favorite fishing spots. She finally found his truck Monday morning and learned from sheriff's officials he had survived the night, but was stuck.

Tracy Ririe went to the rescue site to watch as her husband was finally freed. "He was doing pretty good. He still had his glasses on, still had his hat on. He just couldn't get out," she said.

One of Ririe's daughters issued a bedside order: He is not to fish alone again.




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