They're not down in Custer County anymore though. They're west of Boulder at 8000-8500' in the middle of a lovely forest with plenty of places that bears, cougars, and moose love to roam around in.
And an average of 140" of snow a year. And low temps in January are around 10F. Have fun, boys!
The wildlife is by far the least of their concern. They're a group of loud, smelly humans with a bunch of equally smelly mechanical equipment who are largely huddling about in their shitty camp. Moose and mountain lions will leave them alone, and only the most desperate or dangerously complacent black bears would start proactively investigating. Their biggest problem, their only problem, is the cold.
It's both much easier and much harder than people think to freeze to death. If they have plenty of food, dry winter clothing, and shelter, they can stay alive indefinitely in conditions even worse than these. Especially if they have even a small heat source. Even in severe conditions, frostbite of soft tissue like the tip of the nose, the earlobes, even a finger or two, is a painful, horrifying, tragic, but
very very survivable consequence of the cold. Even with very crude, pre-modern medicine, frostbite is manageable.
On the other hand, if they're left exposed outside, or in wet clothing...look, once your core temperature starts dropping, death can be very quick. Once that drops down to below 95 F, you've got a couple of hours. Not endless days of shivering, but a few short hours before your consciousness fades and you go stiff. And how long does it take to get your core down to 95? In 10 F weather (that's about -12 or -13 C in foreign units), with wet or insufficient clothing?
It can take as little as 15 minutes.
