Snow Caves - So We Prayed

Jason Wooden, maybe age 50+, is a quiet man in our Ward who likes to camp and trail run and trail bike with his wife.  He spoke in testimony meeting yesterday. Paraphrasing:

"I grew up in Mendon, and when I was 13 or 14, our Scout troop went up in Logan canyon to build snow caves for the night.  At the site where we wanted to camp, we started digging into the wall of snow to make our caves.

"As I was shoveling, suddenly the snow opened up into a big cave, huge.  I thought, 'This is great. We don't even have to dig caves. We can all just use this one,' and I looked to the right and to the left. Then we heard this big, loud cracking sound.

"The whole shelf we were on fell away and we all went tumbling down with the snow.  It seemed like it lasted forever but probably it wasn't that long. When it stopped I was surrounded by snow, standing.  Overhead I could see a little light and all I could think of was, 'I gotta get outta here.' "

He was able to move enough to dig himself out, but when he got out he was the only one. The first one. He could see a gloved hand so he started digging and helped out someone.  Then he saw a boot and started digging.  They all helped each other until they were all out. All except one. The Scoutmaster's son.

"We knew we had ten minutes to get anyone out. Twenty minutes they still had a chance.

"We didn't know where to look and we tried to remember where everyone had been standing before. And then someone said we should say a prayer, so we prayed.  Then we spread out in a row and started walking across the debris field, stopping to dig carefully.  And then one of the boys, the Teachers Quorum President, started walking away from us across the debris--pretty far. Like to the end of the cultural hall.  And the leaders called to him to come back and stay with the group, but he just kept on walking, and he started digging while the rest of us stayed in the line.

"Then he yelled, 'I found him!'"

We all ran over and dug him out. He'd been in a sitting position, but he wasn't OK.  In fact he was lifeless. His dad was working on him and shaking him but there was nothing. It was bad. It was well passed the 20 minutes so we were all pretty sober and scared. And by now, even more time had passed. Then, after all that, all of a sudden he just opened his eyes. He saw his dad and he said, 'Dad, I have a really bad headache.'  We all laughed at that, but then, we were all crying."

"Then we just went and got in the cars and we drove home."