This now rescued person made a lot of mistakes that could of ended up with him dead. He had no survival gear but fortunately had a GPS, cell phone and a whistle that may of ultimately saved his life. (Note: Courtenay is in British Columbia Canada and the Mount Washington mentioned in the below link is a ski resort west of Courtenay. Comox is slightly SE of Courtenay.

Search and rescue volunteers carried out a dramatic 16-hour rescue mission spanning Christmas Eve and Christmas Day after a skier became stranded on a cliff in waist deep snow on a Courtenay mountainside.

The skier, a Courtenay man in his early 20s, called the Victoria Joint Rescue Coordination Centre around 12:30 p.m. Saturday asking for help getting off a section of Mount Beecher dubbed Forbidden Plateau, just west of Courtney, according to air force coordinator Capt. Ray Jacobson.

A team of 16 Comox ground search and rescue volunteers were deployed, eight trudging through the waist-deep snow on snowshoe and eight trying to get to the man on snowmobiles, said search and rescue coordinator Paul Berry.