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Tonya Papanikolas reporting A 16-year-old snowboarder from California is back with his family after getting lost at Snowbird and spending the night in the mountains.
"People couldn't even possibly imagine knowing that your child is up on the mountain and wondering if they're going to survive through the night," authorities say.
It was a happy ending to what could have been a very tragic situation. The weather conditions last night had everyone worried, with snow and wind gusts over 80 miles an hour. But some quick thinking by the boy probably saved his life.
His mom and his cousins all told Eyewitness News they thought he was probably dead. It was a long, frightening night for them, until the boy was rescued this morning.
He told his family he hadn't even been scared.
After he spent the night lost in the mountains, the family of the 16-year-old was happy to see him safe and healthy.
Abraham Kim, Cousin of Rescued Snowboarder: "Usually you would think that spending the night in the mountains by yourself in freezing cold weather with bad snow and stuff, you'd come out pretty beat up."
But aside from being cold, hungry and a little sunburned, the boy was okay. He'd been snowboarding Saturday with his cousins in the Mineral Basin area when he apparently went too fast around a sharp turn and fell.
Terance Kim, Cousin of Rescued Snowboarder: "He was just like stopped in the middle of the flat run, waving his arms, trying to catch balance."
His cousins thought he'd get up and catch up to them, so they waited at the bottom of the run.
Allen Joo, Cousin: "We waited for like 40 minutes. He never showed up."
It turns out their cousin had gotten lost and ended up 500 yards out of bounds in American Fork Canyon. The boy eventually stopped and decided he needed a place to sleep and stay warm, so he used his boots to make a snow cave.
Allen Joo, Cousin: "We didn't know he was that smart. He's from California. He doesn't know anything about snow. So that was kind of... I was surprised!"
Meanwhile, search and rescue teams had been looking for the boy. After no luck the first day, they were going out again this morning when a helicopter pilot spotted the boy standing on a rock, waving, around 11:30 am. The commercial skiing helicopter, which was assisting in the search, picked the boy up and brought him back to the resort.
Laura Schaffer, Snowbird: "We couldn't have asked for a better outcome."
Amazingly, searchers on Snowcats had come within a hundred yards of the boy last night. He actually heard them, but told his family he was tired and cold, so he chose to stay in the snow cave until this morning.
(The Associated Press contributed to this report)
