Bored with his daily routine, Burns decides to spring an emergency fire drill on his workers. When employees fail to exit the power plant in under fifteen minutes, Burns realizes a lesson in teamwork is in order, and workers are instructed to attend a survival trek in the mountains. Homer, mistakenly believing the event is intended for employees and their families, brings his wife and children along for the trip. When the Simpsons arrive at the retreat, Burns orders Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie to remain behind. Company workers are paired-off at random, and much to Smithers’ dismay, Homer is chosen as Burns’ partner. Each two-man team is instructed to work its way through the treacherous wilderness to a cabin hidden somewhere on the snow-laden mountain. Burns threatens to fire the team that arrives last.

When Smithers ends up without a climbing partner, Bart and Lisa volunteer to help him make the trek up the mountainside. Meanwhile, Burns shows Homer the location of a hidden snowmobile, and the pair speed up the mountain to the remote cabin. Hours ahead of the other teams, Homer and Burns relax, eat sandwiches and drink from party glasses. But when they toast their contentedness by clinking glasses, the noise triggers an avalanche that buries the cabin in snow.

Meanwhile, the other hikers advance up the mountainside, walking past the buried cabin in the process. Lenny and Carl come upon a second cabin, a ranger station, and assuming it must be the rendezvous point, make their way inside. They are soon joined by Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie, and the rest of the employees. Trapped and bored, Homer and Mr. Burns decide to build two snowmen and dress them using their own clothes. The effects of extreme cold takes its toll, causing Homer and Mr. Burns to hallucinate. A fight ensues, and during the scuffle, a propane tank ruptures and ignites. The entire cabin suddenly blasts its way out of the mountainside and rockets across the snowy terrain towards the ranger station. But the propane tank empties and the cabin comes to a stop.