A man crawled for 11 hours after crashing his side-by-side on a hunting trip in Utah’s Uinta Mountains.

Jacob Schmitt was deer hunting on July 20 and driving up a treacherous grade when his utility vehicle tipped over, KSL-TV in Utah reported Wednesday.

“Immediately, I realized it was going over like a capsizing ship,” Schmitt told KSTU-TV in Salt Lake City. “The machine flipped probably 15-20 times by the end of it, but I would say best of my recollection, probably the second or third flip is when it kind of sort of rag-dolled me out.”

His dog, a 6-year-old German short-hair pointer named Buddy, was in a kennel in the back of the UTV.

“When I came to and stuff and started to do kind of damage control, he was sort of just there staring at me without a scratch, which almost makes me emotional, but it’s unreal,” Schmitt said.

Unable to find his cell phone or radio, and with daylight running out, Schmitt had to make a decision. And with the injuries he had (though he never lost consciousness), the decision would be a painful one.

“A couple broken ribs on this side, a broken right ankle, I believe, left ankle, and then left tibia and fibula, and then about a bruise everywhere you can have it,” Schmitt said.

Schmitt splinted his leg with duct tape and crawled through the night.

But he didn’t have to do it alone.

“I couldn’t have done it without him,” Schmitt said about Buddy. “It was like having your best friend there just to kind of nudge you like, ‘keep going, keep going,’ you know.”

A hunter said he crawled and dragged himself along side his dog for 11 hours across a nearly four-mile stretch of brush in the Uinta Mountains to reach his truck after a rollover in his side-by-side left him badly injured.

????Schmitt familyhttps://t.co/I0rM8s3HMY pic.twitter.com/wyZquiI2Al

— KSL 5 TV (@KSL5TV) July 31, 2025

He followed Buddy, who had a light on his collar, back down the mountain.

“I would catch up to him, and then I would nudge him with my face, and he would get up and he would take another break. And now I kind of realized it wasn’t really him falling asleep, it was him kind of just giving me, giving me a place to go,” Schmitt said, tearing up.

By morning, they reached his vehicle, and he drove to a diner in Oakley, Utah, where a girl called 911.

“He was the most respectful person I’ve ever met. I mean, he was being really respectful. Even though he was through all this pain and everything,” said Yenni Saiz, who was working outside of Oakley Diner when Schmitt approached.

Schmitt stayed at Park City Hospital for four days, according to a GoFundMe page set up by friends.

The fire department took care of Buddy until Schmitt’s family picked him up.

Schmitt has since checked out of the hospital and has reunited with his loyal friend.

Reflecting on the ordeal, Schmitt spoke candidly about the mentality that got him through.

“Everybody wants to act tough, but I wanted to give up every time, all the time — but it’s like, either I die here, or I figure out how to keep going,” Schmitt told KSL. “That was it.”

Advertise with The Western Journal and reach millions of highly engaged readers, while supporting our work. Advertise Today.