There is typically NO cell coverage in that area, just a whole lot of the middle of no where. I had to go into that area once about 5 or 6 years ago for work. I went in from the north (they came from the south) and my car broke down. I had watched the cell phone coverage end 20 miles earlier. I threw some water in my pack and started walking back toward the highway and within 10 minutes was picked up by 2 AP reporters who had been out in the area covering a wildfire. They drove me back to town. I was there in July, fortunately it was an unusually cool day, and I had 5+ gallons of water and 3 days of food with me in the car, just in case. Of course, because I was prepared my rescue occurred within 30 minutes.

Interesting thing is that I called our "roadside assistance" provider so I could get a tow truck to retrieve the vehicle so that I could get my belongings back with me at the motel. The guy asked me where the car was and I told him "it was on a dirt road about 20 miles north of Lund". He replied that he needed the exact address where the car was. I asked him where he was and he said New Jersey. I tried to explain to him the remoteness of western Utah and that there was no "exact address" but he had a hard time understanding that concept.

No surprise to me that it took nearly 2 weeks for them to be found being familiar with the lay of the land in that area. Seems like they could have signaled a little better to assist the rescuers. They said that they saw search aircraft flying overhead - seems like lighting a tire on fire or ripping off the rear view mirror and flashing the aircraft would have been in order. Probably could have stomped a big "SOS" or "HELP" into the snow too. A local TV station flew over their truck yesterday and it looked like they did none of that kind of stuff.