Six months after James Stolpa trudged 50 miles through a fierce blizzard to find help for his wife and infant son, stranded in a remote Nevada cave, the Stolpas are trying to deal with a financial wind-fall.
"How has it not changed our lives?" James Stolpa said one recent evening at the Castro Valley house where they are living with his mother and stepfather.Since their dramatic Jan. 6 rescue, James and Jennifer Stolpa have landed what is rumored to be a record-breaking deal for the movie rights to their story. They make regular celebrity appearances on television and at sporting events and have become the darlings of a watchful and concerned public.
But they also lost all their toes to frostbite, and James needs additional surgery to cover exposed bones. They can't drive or walk without crutches, so they are dependent on others for most of their needs.
Only Clayton, now 10 months old, appears to have suffered no long-term effects.
Late last December, the Stolpas, both 21, set out in a winter storm for Idaho to attend a family funeral.
Finding the main east-west roads through the Sierra Nevada blocked by snow, they swung north on a little-used road. Eventually, lost in a flurry of white, they turned onto an unmaintained gravel road in northwestern Nevada. Their truck became stuck. They were lost and stranded.
The couple, carrying their 4-month-old son, trudged through drifts looking for help. Finally, James left his exhausted wife and son behind in a small cave and set off alone in a desperate bid for help.
After 22 hours, Stolpa spotted a highway worker. They tracked down a California Highway Patrol officer who found the cave five hours later using directions from Stolpa.
His 50-mile trek and his wife's courageous efforts to keep Clayton alive, breast-feeding him in the subzero temperatures, became an instant legend of heroism.
The Army gave Stolpa a medical discharge after he had served two years of a six-year enlistment. Now unemployed, they both want to start college in January.