A Utah father is charged with six felonies after taking his three young children on a treacherous mountain trail during a snowstorm, leaving one child hospitalized with severe injuries that required emergency brain surgery, KSTU reports.

Micah Smith faces three counts of child torture and three counts of child abuse following the Oct. 11 incident on the Broads Fork trail in Big Cottonwood Canyon.

Authorities said Smith hiked with his children, ages 2, 4, and 8, without checking the weather forecast. The group became trapped in a storm thousands of feet up the mountain and took shelter under a rock overnight, according to reports.

The Salt Lake County Sheriff’s Office responded to a search and rescue call the next day. When rescuers located Smith on the trail, they found him acting odd

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