Wow, frustrating. I'm glad you made it home okay. You wife sounds like a real keeper!

Thoughts:
1. NEVER leave home without a cell phone. True, you can't rely on them but when they work they make things so much easier. Some sort of secondary/emergency power source for the phone is also a real good idea.

2. Flashlights. High powered is nice but I think long-lasting is more important in an emergency "ditch kit". Having a 14-hour night and a 45-minute light is a bad combination. Good thing you had several. That makes me think I need to take my assorted flashlight, put new batteries in each and see just how long they each run. That'd be useful information.

3. 80 lbs of gear. Wow, that's a lot to haul. Could you have left some locked to the snowmachine using something like this? It's a steal mesh bag used to lock up luggage. Perhaps you could modify a roll-up sled so that you could pull the gear behind you if you ended up walking again.

4. When you have a chance could you please give us a list of the emergency gear you had brought along?

5. Did you consider spending the night by your machine or would the DV have killed you if you had tried that?

-Blast