I've never ran into someone so happy to see me. The guy wasn't in too much danger yet. I bet he would have made it out on his skis by early evening. He sure had no clue where he was though. He intended to head east from the top of the lift at Ski Bowl West, but got turned around. When I found him, he was several miles from his intended route and had been headed west when it got too dark to travel. He was only 500 feet or so from the road (Still Creek Rd), but Still Creek was in the way. He crossed the creek on a downed tree, with the help of some of my team members.
We started out from the Still Creek Campground access road off Hwy 26, and were able to follow snow cat tracks for a mile or so. Then it was several feet of powder over the old snow. The going was tough at times, and if we'd come to an uphill section on the road I don't think we would've made it. I was breaking trail, headed for some GPS co-ordinates we got from the they guy's phone.
Somewhere along the line I ripped the upper control arm mount at the axle. When I got back to the Ski Bowl parking lot, and slowed to turn into a parking spot, it sounded like something up front was broken. So I took a peek to see the upper hanging on by a thread. Sorry, no pics though. Unless Karl took a few. I signed up for AAA, and had it towed to Karl's for some welding fun next Friday.
We're in the early stages of building a house, and have gone from trailer trash to homeless white trash living in my Sister-in-laws spare room. So I only have internet at work, which I better get back to.