‘He Promised He’d Get Us Out and He Did’ : Survival: Couple tell of desperate days in frigid cave with baby and long hike through blizzard.

CEDARVILLE, Calif. —  Marooned with her baby in a frigid cave, Jennifer Stolpa listened through three days and nights for the rescuers she feared would never come. Instead, she heard the howls of coyotes, a terrifying sound that seemed to draw nearer by the hour.

The food--fruitcake, coconut cookies and a few Doritos--had run out long before, and on Wednesday her breast milk was gone as well. Melting ice in her mouth and feeding her infant son the liquid like a bird, she fought the mounting panic and wondered: Would they freeze first, or starve?

Then came the roar of a Sno-Cat tractor, and Stolpa, disbelieving at first, realized they would be saved. With both feet frostbitten and painfully sore, the weeping mother could not rise. But she waved her arms and cried out from the mouth of her tiny cave, and the rescuers spotted her through the falling snow.

“I thought I was going to die,” Stolpa, 20, said as she rode to safety Wednesday night. A day later, she spoke of her husband, James Stolpa, 21, who had walked more than 40 miles through a blizzard to summon help for his kin.

“He is more than a hero to me,” she said from her hospital bed, grasping his hand with a smile. “He promised me he’d get us out of there and he did.”

And so the worst part, the scariest part, has ended. Vanishing Dec. 29 while on the way to a family funeral in Idaho, their ordeal in the desolate Nevada desert spanned a week--five hopeless nights in their disabled pickup truck, and, for Jennifer Stolpa, three more shivering in the cave with 5-month-old Clayton. For most of the time, snow fell and temperatures hovered below freezing.

But one danger--frostbite--remains. Here in the Modoc County town of Cedarville, doctors at Surprise Valley Community Hospital said Jennifer Stolpa had suffered “severe” frostbite and was “at risk” of losing her toes or her feet.

James Stolpa, an Army Pfc. based at Camp Roberts in central California, also faced that danger but had fewer problems. His feet were encased in ice when he was found. But walking had kept blood circulating in his feet and legs, said Dr. Hugh Washburn, who treated the couple.

Both adults were receiving pain medication and sedatives Thursday, and Jennifer Stolpa was given oxygen and intravenous fluids. Clayton bore the ordeal surprisingly well, Washburn said, largely because Jennifer kept him warm by cuddling him and was able to breast feed for much of the week. However, the infant was being monitored for a possible lung infection caused by exposure.

The family was taken Thursday by ambulance convoy to Reno, where a plastic surgeon and frostbite specialists awaited the Stolpas at Washoe County Medical Center.

As they recounted their saga before leaving Cedarville, both Stolpas had their feet thickly wrapped in blankets. They appeared exhausted, their mood was somber and their eyes filled with tears as they recalled some of the more frightening moments of the past week.

According to James Stolpa, the family left the Bay Area on Dec. 29, heading for his grandmother’s funeral in Pocatello, Ida. When they learned that Interstate 80 and U.S. Highway 50--the two major highways through the Sierra--were closed by snow, they consulted their map and sought suggestions for alternate routes at several convenience stores.

They decided to drive north on Interstate 5 to Redding, follow California 299 east through the mountains into Nevada, and use County 8-A--known by locals to be unpaved and closed in winter--to link up with Nevada Route 140.

The Stolpas’ Dodge pickup became stuck the night of Dec. 29 in deep snowdrifts east of Vya, Nev., a virtual ghost town. Enveloped in a blizzard, the couple decided to remain in their truck, hoping that another motorist would pass. They waited four more days, and not a soul came by, though they heard planes overhead.

With only the fruitcake, cookies and some prenatal vitamins as nourishment, the Stolpas grew desperate. On Sunday morning, the family set out on foot in waist-high snowdrifts. Clayton was bundled in several layers of clothing and a sleeping bag, and the adults wore sweat shirts and coats--but only tennis shoes on their feet.

“We had to decide whether to stay put and die or do something and die,” James Stolpa said Thursday. They trudged eastward, hoping to reach a highway. They tried to soothe the crying baby by placing him inside a garment bag, attaching it to his father’s belt and dragging him like a sled.

Through it all, “Jim kept up the faith,” Jennifer Stolpa said. “I’d get so tired. Each time we went around another boulder I’d see the highway wasn’t there and I felt I couldn’t go on.”

She said she managed to keep walking only because “Jim kept telling me: ‘We’re not doing this for me, we’re not doing this for you, we’re doing it for our baby.’ ”

Eventually, the couple spotted a cave in a sheer rock cliff and decided to spend the night. They used a diaper bag and sagebrush to kindle a small fire, but its warmth did not last long.

The next morning, the couple agreed that James Stolpa would have to continue the search for help alone. After an emotional farewell, he stretched the garment bag across the mouth of the cave to keep out the wind and set off. “I gave her a kiss . . . and I promised her I’d make it,” he said Thursday.

During his long trek, James Stolpa said he frequently heard coyotes. When it was “just one or two,” he would ignore them. When it seemed a larger number, “I’d sit down in the sagebrush and hide myself.” During those stops he took catnaps, five minutes or so, “to rest my bones.”

After spending Monday night alone in the family pickup, Stolpa headed for Vya, walking all day Tuesday and throughout the night. About 11 a.m. Wednesday, he was a quarter-mile from the outpost when county road worker Dave Petersen spotted what he believed was a loose cow. He took James home and summoned help while his wife, Ruth, used a blow dryer to thaw the ice blocks encasing Stolpa’s feet.

Back at the cave, Jennifer Stolpa tried to keep from losing hope.

“I was worried, I was just praying to God Jim would make it,” she recalled. “I’ve never prayed more.”

Dusty Ferguson was among the trio of rescuers who found Jennifer Stopla and Clayton. The five-hour hunt was aided by footprints occasionally visible in the snow and a blue coat James Stolpa had hung on a bush not far from where he had left his wife.

“I got up there and reached down and she gave me the baby,” Ferguson said, noting that his team arrived only 15 minutes before dark. “Then she gave me a big hug and said: ‘Thank God you found me.’ ”