Woman Climbs Out of Canyon in Freezing Temperatures after Car Crash
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iStockphoto/Thinkstock(WOODLAND PARK, Colo.) — A Colorado woman had to climb out of a canyon in freezing temperatures after her car plunged into it on Tuesday.
Sany Mileto, 43, does not remember her Jeep SUV going off the road on Tuesday night, shortly before 11 p.m. She was knocked unconscious during the crash, and awoke to find herself at the bottom of a canyon in a remote area of Telle County, several hundred feet from the road.
As temperatures dropped, Mileto found a blanket in her car, and started a fire to try to keep warm. Unfortunately, she had just filled up her car with gasoline. Some of the gas spilled in the crash caught fire, and Mileto’s car burst into flames.
“It’s like when things go bad, they go worse. Well, that’s how I felt,” Mileto said.
It was then that Mileto realized she needed to get out of the canyon.
“I wanted to stay there. It would have been easy. However, if I would have nobody would have found me. I was too far down,” Mileto recalled.
“It was a moment of life or death,” Mileto said. “What am I going to do, sit down here and freeze? Or, try to take matters in my own hand.”
Mileto, wrapped only in a blanket and missing one shoe, began the arduous climb. The ascent took hours, and her feet were badly frostbitten in the process.
She managed to wave down a camper driving by when she got to the top.
Now in the hospital, doctors are trying to see if they can save Mileto’s frostbitten toes.
It’s not known what caused the initial crash, but conditions on the road that night were icy, and black ice is a definite possibility.
Copyright 2013 ABC News Radio