. >> reporter: he had taken his kids ranging in age from 3 to 14 on a camping trip near brighton bush lake. but on friday, the day they were supposed to leave, the snow came. >> it was kind of like blizzard conditions. >> reporter: but a mile from camp, they got stuck. these are photos of the family's minivan buried in about three feet of snow. he did not have a cell phone and the conditions were too treacherous to hike out. >> it was really cold. >> when you go out it was like really deep. >> the wind was just coming sideways. >> reporter: the family used sleeping bags to keep warm and ate the only food they had left. >> we had to eat peanut butter in cups with no bread and a little bit of jam. >> reporter: but the hardest part, the kids say, was the nighttime. >> i told dad that i wasn't going to make it another night because i couldn't stand sleeping upright. >> it was hard to wait. >> reporter: when her family didn't return home friday for her birthday, hanna shaver knew something was wrong. >> the unknown was hard. >> reporter: rescue teams, many of them volunteers, started searching