SUN VALLEY • A 31-year-old man got a rude introduction to his new home in the Wood River Valley last week, spending three days walking in snow up to his waist after his car became stuck in a snow bank near Trail Creek Summit.

Todd Peebler credits his miniature pinscher for saving his life by sharing her body heat when he stuffed her under his T-shirt at night. During the days, he slogged through almost 20 miles of snow before he was discovered by a Sun Valley dog walker.

“There’s no question I’m alive because of her,” he said of Lola, his dog. “She weighs just 10 pounds, but that was enough.”

Peebler, an insurance salesman from New York, was heading to his new job as a headhunter for Elevate Recruiting Group in Ketchum when he turned his 2005 Audi A6 onto Trail Creek Road near Mackay at the instruction of his GPS unit.

The dirt road is closed at the top by snow in winter, but that didn’t register with Peebler. A Type 1 diabetic, he estimates he had been drifting in and out of consciousness as he drove.