'I was going to die if someone didn't come': Stranded Iditarod racer describes ordeal

Professional proximity tidies up any rosy misconceptions about death. Jim Lanier was a pathologist, Scott Janssen a funeral homeowner. When the two were trapped last week in a sub-zero blizzard in the Alaskan wilderness, they realized, as the as the hours stacked up and the wind screamed, that at a certain point, mother nature was going to win. The clock was ticking.