Fifty-two-year-old Clifton Vial of Nome, Alaska, who does not sound like the sharpest knife in the proverbial psychotic Alaskan woodsman's knife belt, decided to go for a spin in his Toyota Tacoma last week "to see how far a road winding to the north would take him." It took him—and the six-pack of beer he had in the cab—to a snowdrift about 40 miles outside of town, where he became stuck with no supplies. Except for that beer: