A few years ago
I guess this story hits home for us because he was very lucky that nothing worse happened than being very cold for several hours.
I particularly like this response:
As a former Air Force Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape (SERE) Instructor, I thought I would add a little spin on the rule of three's.
3 weeks without food
3 days without water
3 hours without shelter
3 minutes without air
But not three seconds without hope.
I agree you cannot ultimately know what he was thinking or second guess his decision to leave the vehicle. He made a lot of good decisions. The "hug a tree" approach to survival is only as good as the response from search and rescue assets to beginning a search. He couldn't have known when or where those assets might have been looking.
ETA:
These people waited (and some died) for seventy-two days before two of them climbed over a ridge and found help on the other side in a day or three: Uruguayan_Air_ForceFlight 571
Mike Couillard and his 10-year old son waited eight days before Mike climbed to the top of a plateau and saw some cabins.