I'm not a skier or a snowboarder, but I agree with Benjammin.

If he was slogging through snow 4.5 feet deep, there was more than enough snow to build an emergency shelter; and if he was in a heavily wooded area, he should have been able to start a fire.

Ditching his snowboard so he could continue slogging through heavy snow, when he obviously didn't know where he was or where he was going, wasn't too bright; he could have used it to dig out a snow cave instead.