. . .Gonzales strayed from the group after failing to pay enough attention to his surroundings while snowboarding, he admitted.

At about 3:30 p.m., he traveled down a heavily wooded area and suddenly hit a rock that catapulted him backward into another rock below a 20- to 30-foot embankment, Gonzales said.

"I tried to yell for help but it knocked the wind out of me. I couldn't yell," he said.

He opted to follow a ravine and ditched his snowboard somewhere along the way. . . .

. . .He wandered, trying to find an escape, only to be met with more towering mountains and endless snow.

"It felt like I was in a maze," he said. "Any way I turned was the wrong way. I felt like I was in a big box going nowhere."

By 2 a.m. the creek he followed finally led him to a flat space in a valley where he found what he thought was an old broken-down plane. There he found a warm enough place to lie low.

Nearly six hours later he waved down a helicopter carrying the crew who rescued him.