MILWAUKEE, Nov. 6 (UPI) -- Lost in a remote area of northern Minnesota, a Wisconsin medical student survived for nine days on Tootsie Rolls, crackers, a can of tuna and thinking of his favorite restaurants.
Jason Rasmussen, 29, of Bloomington, Minn., was rescued after beginning what was supposed to be a three-day hiking trip in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness.
Rasmussen was hospitalized Tuesday in Duluth, Minn., suffering from frostbite.
Rasmussen, armed with a detailed map and Swiss Army knife, headed off on the Pow Wow Trail at Isabella Lake on Oct. 22. He planned to hike along a 23-mile trail around the lake.
His first day, he recalled, was idyllic. On the second day, however, all traces of the trail disappeared, but he wasn't worried because he figured it would loop back and he'd be able to find it again. At nightfall, he pitched his tent on a bluff. The next morning, he left his tent in place and headed south, figuring he could use his compass to find his campsite again later.
By afternoon, he was completely lost.
"No lake, no tent, nothing that looked familiar," the Medical College of Wisconsin student told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. All he had on him were two Tootsie Rolls, a Swiss Army knife, a whistle, two packages of crackers, a can of tuna and the clothes on his back.
Rasmussen said he wandered aimlessly for a while.
"Then, by luck or the grace of God, I came upon a giant fallen pine tree, lying on its side, already attacked by termites," he said.
He hollowed enough of the tree to make a shelter and then put pine boughs around it.
"I must have been exhausted because that is the last thing I remember," he said. "I woke up in the middle of the night to a tremendous storm. Initially, I thought I was hearing gunshots, but the next day I saw it was trees that had been falling."
When he stuck his head outside in the morning, he found his shelter covered with 10 inches of snow, with more coming down.
Since Rasmussen had planned to be home by Oct. 25, his parents contacted authorities, who started an air and ground search.
As a medical student, Rasmussen recognized the signs of dehydration when symptoms set in just after he ate his tuna. That's when he started eating snow, lots of snow.
Whenever he heard one of the rescue planes overhead, he'd jump up and down, trying to attract attention.
He kept improving his shelter and at night would recall the sounds, smells, tastes and textures of his favorite foods at his favorite restaurants.
"I'd close my eyes and imagine all my favorite food," he said, especially Japanese and Indian.
Six days after his ordeal began, Rasmussen realized his toes were "pretty numb."
"By Tuesday (Oct. 30) it was up past my ankles," he said.
That was also the day rescue teams found Rasmussen's abandoned tent.
On Wednesday morning, Rasmussen said his legs were numb. He got up to stomp around and then thought he was hallucinating when he heard voices.
He blew his whistle. After a while, he heard voices yelling at him to keep blowing. A short time later, rescuers located him and whisked him off to the hospital.
