LOS ANGELES — The staff at the Vermilion Valley Resort in California’s eastern Sierra left house doors unlocked when they closed for the winter in case a lost hiker needed a place to stay during one of the many snowstorms that happen in the mountains. The 27-year-old Georgia woman Tiffany Slaton went missing for almost three weeks in the middle of nowhere. That choice may have saved her life.
Owner Christopher Gutierrez saw a cabin door open and shoes nearby when he got to the lodge early Wednesday morning to start getting it ready for spring. Suddenly, a young woman walked through the door.
Gutierrez said at a news conference Wednesday night, “She pops out, didn’t say a word, just ran up, and all she wanted was a hug.” “That’s when I realized who this was. It was a pretty strange moment.”
Slaton’s parents had called the police on April 29 because they hadn’t heard from her in more than a week. A search was started by the Fresno County Sheriff’s office. Deputies and volunteers looked in more than 1,550 square kilometers (600 square miles) of the Sierra National Forest but couldn’t find our friend. Searchers had a hard time because heavy snow blocked many roads.
The sheriff’s office said on Monday that the search would be scaled back. After two days, she came out of the hut.
Gutierrez made Slaton a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and then called the police. They took her to the hospital to be checked out. Officials from the sheriff’s office said she was hungry and thirsty, but otherwise in good health.
Tony Botti, a spokesman for the sheriff’s office, said it was the longest time he’s seen someone go lost in the wilderness and still be alive.
“Three weeks? That’s never happened before,” he said. “It shows how determined Tiffany is; she’s a fighter.”
With help from the public, investigators found that Slaton had been seen around April 20 near Huntington Lake, which is over 20 miles (32 kilometers) to the southwest and through rough territory. However, the police did not say when or where Slaton’s hike started, what her plans were, or how she got to Vermilion Valley Resort, which is in the Sierra Nevada and is about halfway between Yosemite and Sequoia/Kings Canyon national parks.
Botti said that sheriff’s deputies were going to talk to Slaton to find out more about what happened and how she managed to stay alive in the cold at levels above 6,500 feet (1,981 meters).
Her parents were shopping in Jeffersonville, Georgia, which is across the country, when they heard that their daughter had been found.
“I just grabbed somebody and I said, ‘Can I hug you?’ “And I did,” Fredrina Slaton, her mother, said. “I was crying and hugging.”
Bob Slaton, Tiffany’s dad, said, “a ton of weight has been lifted.” The search-and-rescue team and everyone in the neighborhood who helped find her were thanked.
Snowplows cleared a key mountain pass early Wednesday, according to the sheriff’s office. This meant Gutierrez could get to the resort on Lake Edison for the first time this year. Gutierrez said that he had to break up ice for about an hour and a half in order to get into the house.
They said Tiffany loved being outside as a child and that they always stressed how important it is to be able to take care of yourself in a tough situation.
Her mother said, “So it’s nice to know that all the things we taught her, she actually did.” “We think life is an adventure.”