Boise father missing in Owyhee Mountains, mom and baby take refuge in vacant cabin

JORDAN VALLEY, Idaho — After eight freezing nights stranded in the Owyhee Mountains, a Boise mother and her 10-month-old daughter are safe. The father, who went to search for help, is still missing.

32-year-old Eric Rose and his wife, who goes by Rose, were on their way to visit California, along with their baby.

The family decided to turn around for personal reasons, according to a family spokesperson, and tried to take a shortcut through Silver City. However, their Suburban got stuck in the deep snow along Trout Creek Road outside of Jordan Valley.

This happened on Thursday, February 7.

For several days the family built fires to stay warm and Rose kept their baby underneath her sweatshirt, according to Amy Jennings, the missing man's cousin.

On Sunday, Feb. 10, after no sign of anyone on the roads, Eric left to look for help.

He never returned.

Jennings told CBS 2 News that was when Rose found a cabin nearby and used a ladder to climb in through a window.

For several days, she used a wood stove to melt snow and heat bottles for her baby.

Rose traveled back to their abandoned Suburban regularly, worried that no one would know they were in the cabin, and finally on Friday, Feb. 15 they were found.

A miner, happened to be passing through on his snowmobile when he saw them. He brought them into nearby Jordan Valley.

The baby is completely healthy and Rose suffered only a small amount of frostbite on her nose.

"We're just so grateful that they are, they're back with us," said Kellie Rose, Eric's mother. "In some sense, we're grateful that my son tried to walk out and tried to find help, because in those back areas in the Owyhee Mountains, sometimes people don't traverse those roads for weeks on end."

Eric's mom and three sisters are staying in the Jordan Valley area to help look for him, but say weather conditions are very limiting so they're leaving the majority of the search up to authorities.

The Owyhee County Sheriff's Office is using dogs to help search for Eric. Idaho Mountain Search is also assisting.

Due to extreme conditions, the Owyhee County Sheriff's Office is requesting no additional help from the community in the search.

All roads to Silver City are closed to the public during the winter.