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This is the story of what I learned from getting caught in a snowstorm when things could have gone seriously wrong.

The sun has just set, it’s a snowstorm. We’re at 10,000 feet, it’s getting dark, the snow is sticking to our skis. We don’t have a map and we were still several miles from the fire tower that we are supposed to be staying for the night. We are in the middle of the Montana wilderness and we have just dug ourselves out of another hole because we have fallen off the trail into neck-deep snow.

This was about ten years ago in Montana and the reason we were caught in this situation in the first place was because of a comedy of errors. They say accidents don’t happen because of one mistake, but it is usually a series of little mistakes that lead to a big catastrophe. We were very close to a big catastrophe!

We had to drive a couple of hours into the mountains. We rented skis and found that they had given us two right boots. It was far too late to head back to town to return the boots and come back to the trail head and head to the fire tower.

We were committed to making it to the fire tower so we decided to go ahead with the mismatched boots. We took the 15-mile route to the mountains. Everything started off great.

When you are in shape and a seasoned outdoor person, sometimes you overestimate your abilities and you don’t come prepared. I was not prepared! We didn’t have a map and we had the wrong equipment. I far overestimated our ability to get to the top. I estimated, three to four hours, with breaks, to get up there. But, after six hours, we were still halfway! We also knew that the fire road was going to end and we were going to have to do the last three miles across open terrain to get to this fire tower.

This perfect storm of bad things started happening. One, the snow was coming down. It was causing our skis to become sticky with snow. All of a sudden, the skis became heavy. So, we had to take them off and walked on the snow but it was not a good solution. We slowed down to one mile an hour. The sun was setting and we couldn’t see the trail anymore. Luckily, snowmobilers had gone and packed down the surface of the snow a week or a day prior. So if we stayed within this narrow three-foot wide path, we wouldn’t collapse down into the snow. And if we took one step off, we’d fall down into this deep powder, which was exhausting. It was very treacherous. It was very dark, and things were getting really dicey.

Here’s what was going through my head that time: whenever I would think about getting stuck out there, we could build a snow cave or we could just wait it out until morning. Or what happens if one of us gets injured, or if we would run out of food and water? I was starting to get worried. So, I forced myself to not worry. It helped showcase my thought pattern in a really treacherous situation.

I often refer back to this thought patterns when I am testing myself and taking risks, whether in business, or socially. I’m thinking back on that really tough physical challenging situation. I knew that I was fit and well-trained as an athlete, so I was confident that my body could keep going if only I could manage my energy well and I kept a positive attitude. So I was consciously directing my thoughts to keep myself in the present moment and that really was just keeping one foot after the other trying to stay on this little trail.

On the way up, we downloaded this app, so we had a GPS of the series of trails. But because we were out too long, the batteries on our phone started to drain. So what we would do, was, in the dark, we would take out the phone, power it on really quick and check the trail and quickly power the phone back off and keep it in our jackets, to keep the heat. We would then poke our way through this trail. Finally, after several hours, we see this light and we know that this was the fire tower. Our friends were there and they were searching and they were also deciding between looking and waiting for us.

It was so tantalizingly close, that we could see our salvation. All we had to do was cross this one mile of peaks to get to them, but the wind was starting to pick up and it was really blowing and we didn’t have any eye protection and it was getting really dark. We had headlamps that made us see and focus what was really in front of us. You don’t worry of what might go wrong because you don’t see the other things around you. You don’t worry about your past, you eventually accept that you made these mistakes that had led you to this point, and you only think of survival.

When I am in situations where I am feeling the same pressure, I am drawing on this experience and know how to manage my own energy, my own thought, and not getting into fear. And this really builds my confidence. I’m also relying on the proof that I had of this situation – that I could rely on my physical body to get me through. At no point was I worried that my body was going to break down, which is a huge benefit, knowing that you are going to be able to make it through. I am aware that people have died in situations like this, but I am not really thinking about that. I was still thinking about having a good Valentine’s day.

Because we were cooperating really well, we were able to keep getting forward. Now, when we got into a little bit of a drop in energy, that was when we started fighting. I knew that arguing would really destroy us, so I made sure that we rested for a while. We got to a place where we were cooperating again. We managed our water intake and ate a little bit of sugar, and we were able to reset our physiology so that we could focus back on moving down the path. And so, by the time we get to a quarter mile away, our friends could see our lights coming across the field. We can see them!

We were not there yet, but we could see the end. That’s really dangerous – when you feel done and you just want to sprint for home, but you know you couldn’t because you needed to be consistent and to keep the focus. We could still fall off the trail.  When we finally got there, the feeling was such immense relief and joy! Our friends brought us food and there was this amazing relief of the pressure of surviving.

We spent about six hours in the dark, surviving. And I don’t know how close we really were to a dangerous situation. Even though we weren’t really prepared, but because we were able to get through that situation, it gave me so much more confidence for the other hard things that I do in my life – whether physical, business, or relationship challenges. I know that I can get through these really hard things, and that was probably the most important lesson from the snow storm. Along with, of course, being prepared.