Greg Hedges thought his lost wedding band would be gone forever, but four months after losing it while skiing on Big White, it was found by staff.
“I stopped under the Snow Ghost Express chair at the top to grab a photo of my friend coming up the chair. I popped my gloves off and put out my left hand in the soft snow to steady myself,” Hedges said.
“Pop — I felt the ring come straight off when I removed my hand from the snow,” he said, adding he forgot the lessons of vasoconstriction in the cold.
Hedges and his friends searched the area to no avail. Instead of wasting more precious skiing time, Hedges reassured himself he would find the ring once the snow starts to melt.
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Last week, Eric Bobert, a Big White millwright, found the wedding band on a rock, “almost as if it was waiting for someone to pick it up,” the release stated.
“Things go into the snow and sometimes it’s lost forever, and sometimes you find interesting items,” Bobert said.
Bobert was made aware of the lost ring in January, at the time of the incident, and he and a colleague were tasked to continue the search for it when they could. He has since scanned the area at least six to eight times before discovering it.
“(Last Thursday) was the last day we were going to be out on snow,” Bobert said. “Snow will often move things, and so I just started a far ways down from the unload area of the Snow Ghost, worked my way up, and after about 15 minutes of scanning the ground, I happened across a ring on a rock.”
It was Greg’s ring.
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“I had a feeling it would turn up when the snow melted,” Hedges said. “Who would have thought it would park itself in the middle of a big rock?”
“I’m so grateful for Big White for their phenomenal customer service. This is one of the most precious items you own — there’s so much sentimental value wrapped around it.”
Bobert said many interesting treasures can be found on the mountain, ranging from wallets and keys to GoPros that still work. Items could be lost for 10 or 15 years, he explained, and “treasure hunters” are often seen scouring the mountainside with metal detectors.
“We were keen to find the ring before someone else did,” Bobert said.
