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“By three in the morning, my fire had melted down nine feet in the snow, so it suffocated,” he said. “I started digging to try and get oxygen to the fire, but my shovel broke because the snow had melted from the fire and then it would freeze. At this point, I'm not even really thinking, I'm just reacting. I was just like an animal.”
In desperation, he dug an igloo in a drift and crawled in with a new realization setting in. While the hard work of digging had kept his body and limbs warm, his hands and feet were not. From four in the morning until six in the morning, Weber focused on warming his hands and feet, squeezing one foot with his hands before sliding it back into a boot and doing the same for the other foot. He warmed his hands by sitting on them, and he mixed in pushups, rotating through each step over and over. By 6:30 a.m., the storm finally cleared, and Weber was able to set out in search of the trail, which he found about a quarter-mile from his camp. He had survived.
Lessons learned
Weber has since reevaluated what he carries with him for survival, as well as the size of his riding group.
“Cutting down trees is hard work, and you need more food than you think,” Weber said. “I think the smartest thing is make sure your group is made up of at least three to five [riders]. Because the strength is in the numbers. And don’t get split up.
“In a situation like this, you realize you only have one life to live and you never know when the end is going to come. Sometimes when the snow is really good, you'll make a sacrifice and go off alone. It's an addiction, you know, a stupid way of thinking. But you really need to limit your risk, think it through, and make sure you’re prepared.”