Faced with a do or die dilemma, she danced to stay warm

Hartley, a 33-year-old US computer software developer, had wandered out of bounds at the powder mountain ski area on Christmas eve and spent more than 18 hours cold and alone on the mountain. The temperatures were in the single digits.

“The best thing I could think of was to keep my brain occupied by playing music in my head and dancing to it to keep warm,” Hartley said on Friday. “I went through all the old disco songs, show tunes, popular and current stuff, Christmas tunes and even camp songs I’d ever known.”

“I sang and danced all night long, from about 1830 hrs (local time) to dawn. It was the only way I could think of to keep warm.”

Hartley was stranded when she skied down the resort’s ungroomed powder area. She reached the bottom around 1530 hrs (local time) and planned to ride back to the top of the mountain in a big, enclosed vehicle called a Snowcat. But the Snowcat wasn’t running on Wednesday.

Hartley said she hollered for help for a couple of hours before finally deciding that she wasn’t going to be heard.

She thought about trying to hike back up the mountain but was too tired to make the steep climb through deep snow.

About 1900 hrs (local time) she ate the lone candy bar she had with her, still thinking someone would find her.

“Not exactly the Christmas celebration I had in mind,” she said.After dancing all night, Hartley started the climb up.

Around 0900 (local time) she heard a helicopter and thought, “that’s my ride”.