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From last week’s post, Another Opportunity For Problem-Solving, and with apologies for leaving y’all hanging on how (and if!) we finally got out of the snow:

The Problem

During a visit to Mesa Falls, Idaho, we ignorantly drove (ok– I ignorantly drove) my Honda Civic into the precarious position of being stuck in about… 12 or so inches of snow.

Although Keira and I would like to think we are pretty strong & know a surprising amount of physics principles, we just weren’t sufficient to meet the challenge.

The Solution

Our main attempts involved:

1. Assessing the situation.

It was getting close to evening, there was no traffic on the road, no cell phone service, no way the car was moving, and we were quite a walk from “civilization”. Oh yeah, and it was freezing.

2. Determining what our resources were.

As mentioned, we had a windshield scraper, stick, broken road sign, metal bowl, car jack, longboard, two 3 ring binders, two coats, some trail mix, and a fairly hefty Honda Civic. It’s enough to make you think creatively, but sadly, not enough to solve the problem.

3. Attempting solutions with a reasonable “quitting time” assigned.

We first attempted to dig the car out using the broken road sign (hey, impromptu shovel!) windshield scraper, and 3-ring binders. It was ineffective, but kudos to us for trying. We also tried to push/pull the car. It was a noble effort, but also a waste of time.

Keira had a sweet idea to jack the car up and then dig out some of the snow, but seriously, there was a lot of snow.

As a final effort, we determined to give it a few more minutes of digging and either stay in the car w/ the heater on until the next morning (it could have been unpleasant hiking in the dark & cold wilderness of Idaho), or to get the 10K accomplished as quickly as possible.

And Now, The Moment You’ve All Been Waiting For…

We were rescued, by surprise. A truck full of a family from BYU-Idaho drove right up on their way to Mesa Falls, and pulled us out with some kind of tow rope. I was pretty grateful.

I will also say, that even with their 4-wheeling capable truck, they were not brave enough to drive through that amount of snow. Which either indicates that I’m extremely optimistic, or that I don’t pay attention to details often enough.

You do the math.

As for the rescue, to be honest, I was kind of disappointed. I think secretly I was hoping we’d either have to camp in the car or else that one of our amazingly cool efforts would pay off & we’d have the car out in a jiffy.

And it all comes back to the risk-taking, creative solution-seeking, completely unconcerned with the pains of reality, entrepreneurial nature I’ve inherited by working in startups. And how!