Near-fatal exposure can end suddenly with rescue arriving almost unlooked for.

Evidence

Not a quarter of an hour after I had wondered how long I could hold on I saw, to my surprise, close to me, half-smothered in snow, the scattered houses and blessed lights of Longmount, and welcome, indeed, its wide, dreary, lifeless, soundless road looked! When I reached the hotel I was so benumbed that I could not get off, and the worthy host lifted me off and carried me in. — Isabella L. Bird, A Lady’s Life in the Rocky Mountains, 255

Categorization

• FICTION: The traveler so benumbed she cannot dismount, lifted bodily by the innkeeper, is a vivid closing image for a winter-survival narrative.