Find My iPhone Saves Stevens Pass Skier Buried in Avalanche | Columbia Basin
Find My iPhone Saves Stevens Pass Skier Buried in Avalanche | Columbia Basin
Publish Date: 2026-02-28 17:29:00
Source Domain: www.yoursourceone.com
SKYKOMISH – A terrifying 48 hours for one local family ended in what they are calling a miracle, after a Stevens Pass skier was located and rescued following an inbounds avalanche — thanks in part to Apple’s location-tracking technology.
Lauren Harris said she woke up Thursday morning to multiple SOS texts and missed calls from family members. A frantic voicemail from her mother immediately signaled something was wrong.
“The first words she said to me were, ‘Your dad is missing,’” Harris said. “My heart sank. I felt like I was going to vomit.”
Her father, Michael Harris, had gone to Stevens Pass alone for what he hoped would be a powder day. But according to Harris, his location on the “Find My iPhone” app had not moved for three hours.
Unable to reach ski patrol herself, Harris began calling dispatch to report her father missing while her mother drove toward the mountain, prepared to show responders the precise GPS location displayed on her phone.
When her mother arrived at the resort, ski patrol was waiting and quickly mobilized to the coordinates.
“After what felt like an eternity, ski patrol radioed that he had been located and they would be bringing him down on the sled,” Harris said.
According to ski patrol and EMS medics, Harris’ father had been struck by an avalanche within the resort’s inbounds terrain in the Big Chief Ski run bowl. He had been buried for approximately four hours.
When rescuers reached him, he was severely hypothermic, with a body temperature in the high 70s to low 80s. Warm IV fluids were administered before he was transported to the emergency room under a full trauma response.
Despite the length of time he had been buried, doctors determined his injuries were far less severe than initially feared. He sustained a lung contusion, pneumonia, kidney injuries, and a right tibial plateau…
