Today, as Dan and I were getting on the ski lift, a snowboarder joined us on the chair. We'd seen him talk to his mother as she went to get help from the ski patrol. The previous run the family had taken a new trail that none of them had skied before. The 9 year old sister/daughter had become separated from them and now they could not find her. I knew, being a mother myself, the worry that mother must have been experiencing.
We talked to the snowboarder as we rode the lift. As he described the trail they had gone on with Bethany (that was his sister's name) Dan and I told him we knew that trail well. It is a lesser known run but one of our favorites. The brother told us what had happened, how she'd been separated, and what she was wearing. Dan and I told him we'd go on this trail, that was so familiar to us, and look for her.
As we searched on the ski trail we saw 2 ski tracks going off in a different direction than most skiers normally go. We followed the tracks which went through some trees and to a different area of the mountain than the family had expected Bethany to be. As we came out of the trees, there was Bethany, sitting in the snow, waiting for her family to find her.
We asked her if her name was Bethany. She was a bit hesitant to talk to us, after all, we were strangers. We told her her family was looking for her and where her mother was. Bethany stood up and headed off toward her mother. Dan and I followed her until she was with her family.
I saw the look of relief in her mother's eyes when she saw Bethany skiing toward her. The mom was with a someone on the ski patrol who organizing a search. No more need for that!
Dan and I got on the lift and headed up the mountain for another run but we both felt a little warmth in our hearts knowing that Bethany was okay. The run we found Bethany was by far the best run of the day.