Save the Packets: Man and Dog Survive Five Days in Blizzard by Eating Hot Sauce

A man and his best friend trapped for five days in a car following a blizzard survived because he had not thrown away his fast-food sauce packets.

Jeremy Taylor, of Sunriver, Oregon, found himself trapped in his car with his dog in deep snow after a blizzard hit the central part of the western US state. With no way out and no food available he scrounged throughout his vehicle, finally lighting on a handful of sauce packets from a US fast food franchise that had never been thrown away.

Taylor, an avid outdoorsman, was able to melt snow for drinking water and regularly started his vehicle so that he and his faithful hound, Ally, did not freeze, according to The Guardian.

An adventurous snowmobiler traveling on the forest road finally came across Taylor, 36, on Friday. A search and rescue operation involving a large snow tractor quickly followed, according to a Deschutes County spokesperson.

Taylor and his dog had been feared lost in the storm, last seen gassing up their auto on February 24. The two were unharmed but very hungry, according to reports.

The experienced backcountry aficionado detailed how he got his car stuck in deep snow later in the day while traveling on a remote US Forest Service road. Thinking he could ride out the storm, he slept in his vehicle but awoke on Monday to find that a lot more of the frozen white stuff had accumulated.

"Thank you everyone, I'm safe, my Ally dog is safe," he posted to Facebook on Friday. "I really appreciate all the help. Got lucky, let's never do that again," cited by The Guardian.

Taylor, joking about how he had sucked down several fast-food franchise hot sauce packets in his car, noted: "Taco Bell fire sauce saves lives!"