Since you asked 8-)

To me, you made some mistakes which totally belie your claim of backcountry
experience. It's foolish to go on any backcountry trip, summer or winter,
without a layer of clothes above what you're wearing when exercising as well
as some decent food and drink - and some matches. This is probably the most
basic, well known and generally accepted principle and doesn't involve more
than a pound or so. You need to stay warm when you stop - whether that be
for a planned break or if you're shut down for any accidental reason. Do
you understand how quickly you'd have become hypothermic if you'd had to
stop for even 30 minutes in near freezing temps with the clothes you had?
How about if you were stuck over night? Theres' many stories about folks
who die under similar conditions, I'm not exaggerating. I'm sure you can
think of 100 common reasons a forced delay could happen. To me a warm hat
and nylon mitts don't count, or at best are only a tiny portion of what you
need . To me, the minimum for a backcountry tour is an *extra* jacket
(beyond what you're wearing when working), an extra warm*er* hat, warm mitts
and probably some zip up shell pants. I have no problem adding a pound or
two on a day tour - it's only exercise after all.

I don't see any food beyond a minimal snack, but I could have missed it.

These were your most extreme and foolish greenhorn-type mistakes- which I
don't see that you've acknowledged at all. The thing that happened (into
the creek) is among the things, in my opinion, that could happen with even
great preparation (which you admit you didn't have). You seem to have
focused on skis, map and such but I hesitate to fault you much for those
things because I really think that those were fairly minor error judgements.
But to go out on a trip like that without some means for keeping warm and
energized in case of any small incident is really inexcusable - especially
since you were in unkown country (to you) and when you started, you really
had absolutely no idea if you could reasonably expect support and assistance
from anyone in a timely manner.

Are you sorry you asked?

Grissy