Will Debolt and Jeanette Stewart were driving one of their favourite routes in a rural area northwest of Calgary almost two weeks ago, when their SUV rolled down an embankment, trapping Debolt and stranding the pair overnight.
“I just saw the corner coming up and we started tipping and I was looking at Jeannette and then it was out of our hands,” Debolt said. “It was pretty quick.”
Stewart, 42, said all she remembers was the Yukon GMC rolling twice, then trying to kick out the windshield to escape the truck.
“All I kept on thinking was of catching fire,” Debolt said. “So I told her, ‘we have to get out’ and we both kicked at the windshield and climbed out that way. And then the next thing I was thinking about was getting someplace…warm.”
Watch below: Best friends explain the rollover that led to being stranded overnight in the Alberta foothills
The truck went off the road on Highway 579 near Highway 40 at around 8 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 20. It slid down an embankment before landing 200 feet (60 metres) from the road. The pair were stranded for about 14 hours.
Stewart, who had been driving, said the truck landed in a way that she was on the bottom and the passenger side was on top.
“I got out the windshield, squeezed through and Will was on the passenger side, so I had to climb up on top of the roof rack and pull him out that way through the passenger window,” she said.
Debolt, 41, couldn’t walk, so Stewart helped him to crawl under a tree to get out of the elements. The couple huddled together all night, unable to make their way through the dark.
Watch below: Best friends explain how they survived the night stranded in the Alberta foothills
“In the dark you can’t see what’s leaking or bleeding,” Debolt said. “We just did a lot of cuddling, tried to stay warm, and the only thing I could think about was: if we don’t get a fire going—I thought we might be out there even longer, because that road isn’t used very often.
“At that point when we were sitting there, we had no phone, no nothing. We were just down at the bottom of a valley. We didn’t know if anyone could see us from the road. Pretty worried.”
At morning light, Stewart climbed up the hill and found her almost-dead cellphone and transmission fluid in the truck.
“So I poured that and used a rock to light a match and started a fire,” Stewart said.
Debolt said the match was from an emergency kit in the truck that was at least five years old.
“I never thought about it until that day,” he said. “Luckily enough, old matches…one spark is what kept us going.”
Stewart was eventually able to text a friend and call 911. She built a marker on the road out of rocks and a stick so people would know where they were.
Watch below: Best friends explain making a marker for EMS and finally being rescued
Debolt said it seemed like forever for STARS Air Ambulance to lift him out.
“They cut my clothes off so I felt like I was colder. And then they covered me up and put me on the body board.
“If I had seen that and not been involved in it, I would have thought there would be somebody dead at the bottom. So I feel very lucky.”
Debolt said he has cuts and bruises and is still numb from some nerve damage in his legs. Stewart bruised her collar bone, suffered a concussion and has scrapes from crawling through the Yukon’s windshield.
“For a minute, he tried to breakdown,” Stewart said. “And I said, ‘don’t you dare, I need you. I need you to be strong because if you fall apart I can’t do it.’”
Watch below: Best friends say they kept each other going through the night
Debolt said there came a point in the night he was very worried.
“It was looking pretty bleak. I don’t know if we were going to survive; we were very cold.”
But Stewart, who grew up on a trap line near Edson, said she vowed to survive.
“I told myself I wasn’t going to die there…That there’s no way that I’m going to let my best friend or myself die.”
With an interview from Global’s David Boushy
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