Then, he went for one last drink. In recent years, he's taught hockey and kept in shape with sports and frequent snowboarding. I'm a person who's achieved worldly dreams and all of those were a shadow without Christ. "I figured it was an adventure," he recounts. But a wrong turn sent him into the wilderness on the back of the mountain, and now he was cold and wet and stuck. "I thought, God, I've got to get out of here," he recalls. I could see everythying. She had become worried when Eric didn't return her phone calls. I hear water, and I was drawn to it. This former professional, Olympic, world-champion ice hockey player is additionally, one of the most famous, unrelenting and compelling survivors in history. '"Eric had gone nine miles off course. He had to depend on God for his strength. I just screamed. It wasn't unusual for him not to check in with his parents. LeMarque endured nights of single-digit temperatures and days that often failed to crack freezing. He stayed in his snow shelter for two nights, barely able to move. A big mistake that I made is that I knew that I was riding down into fog. I give up. He even vows to hit the slopes again. Eric LeMarque has seen his life flash before his eyes more often than most people. Semiconscious, LaMarque rose to his knees, waving frantically in the air. I slept through the entire seventh night in one spot, which was 10 steps from over looking the top of the mountain. The snow lay 12 feet deep.
The sun was dropping quickly through the frozen air when Eric LeMarque realized he was lost.
His cell-phone battery was dead. "His body temperature was 86 degrees. He had no food beyond four pieces of gum and no protection beyond the clothing he wore. "Eric chose to ignore the ski patrol’s warning; he was determined to take one last ride. There is no way I am going to let my parents bury me. I just stripped down and basically just did what I called the fire dance. '"Back in Los Angeles, his mother waited and prayed. Using television and the Internet, CBN is proclaiming the Good News in 149 countries and territories, with programs and content in 67 languages.If you have an immediate prayer need, please call our 24-hour prayer line at 800-700-7000. So immediately I clung to them as long as I could, and I wept." I sleep through the sixth night. I feel like I can run. He was soaked. Now that I have Christ, I feel alive. Now he was lost and had to spend the night. I was trying to dig my board and pull myself up for only the snow to give way and come back down like a fish out of water." I said, 'No matter even if I had to crawl on my hands and knees, I was not going to give up. So, now I was in an environment where it was freezing cold but completely soaked. It was loud. "The will to live and some clever thinking kept him alive. "The search for Eric had begun. "Let's reset it. I started giving God praise and asked the Lord to come into my heart and really received it. Frostbite dogged him early on, and he trudged on feet that were increasingly numb until, finally, he could no longer walk or even stand up. I'm going to restore everything that's been broken." ""The longest anyone had survived had been two nights out in those conditions," he says. "I was too tired." Eric LeMarque is an international best-selling author of two books and inspirational speaker sharing his message of hope throughout the world. "I tried to forget them. He slept in snow caves he carved for shelter.
But next time, he'll be much, much better prepared.Sign-up to our daily newsletter for more articles like this + access to 5 extra articlesSee why nearly a quarter of a million subscribers begin their day with the Starting 5. "I'll be snowboarding next season," he promises. I thought, 'I'm one ridge too far south, and now I am faced with this giant mountain range that I have to get up and over. He would either be saved that day or die.Luckily, rescue efforts had finally geared up.