Rescue workers found a family in their RV on Tuesday after 17 days in the mountains near the prefix = st1 /Oregoncoast. Peter Stivers, Marlo Hill-Stivers, their two children Sabastyan, 9, and Gabrayell, 8, and Hill-Stivers's mother and stepfather, Elbert and Becky Higginbotham, were in the vehicle. On their way home from a trip to the coast, the family got lost in the mountains at an elevation   of about 3,800 feet. What's worse, they were trapped in four feet of snow. "We had fuel and food, but we were running short," said Elbert Higginbotham. "We were rationing  ." When the family was reported missing, rescue teams from Oregon and Californiasearched likely routes to the coast. But with no leads and no idea where the family was heading, those conducting the unsuccessful search eventually called it off. In the evenings, Sabastyan and Gabrayell entertained the adults by reading jokes from Reader's Digest aloud. The family members survived mostly on dehydrated food  . On Monday, Hill-Stivers and her husband decided to go for help. They packed a tent, wool blankets, tuna fish, honey, and hand-warmers to take into the wilderness with them. The children stayed safe in the RV with their grandparents. The couple were found the following day by a US Bureau of Land Management worker. A rescue team in a helicopter located the rest of the family. The family was driven out of the snowbound   area on snow machines. Parents and children were happily reunited. "They enjoyed it," Peter Stivers said of his children's experience. "They didn't know we were in trouble." For the adults, it was quite an ordeal  . They had to worry about survival and rescue, and about keeping everyone calm. "I'm so proud of my family," said Elbert Higginbotham. "They stuck together, they didn't lose it." What is the main cause of the family's bad situation?
They ran short of fuel. It snowed heavily. They couldn't find their way. Their RV couldn't move in the snow.