Engagement Ring Drops 118 Feet; Snowmaking Hero Saves the Day
What started as a picture-perfect marriage proposal on SkyBridge Michigan at Boyne Mountain Resort turned into an unforgettable story when an engagement ring slipped through shaking hands and plummeted 118 feet to the snow-covered ski slopes below. But like any good love story, this one has a happy ending.
Trevor Van Camp from Rochester Hills, Michigan, had planned a surprise weekend getaway to Boyne Mountain Resort after his girlfriend Danielle Jenkins sent him TikToks of SkyBridge Michigan, the resort's iconic suspension bridge perched between two mountain peaks. After riding a chairlift to the top of the slopes, the couple started their walk on the illuminated bridge when Trevor stopped, telling his girlfriend, Danielle, he wanted to take their picture. He then got down on one knee and asked her to marry him. She said yes.
But when Trevor, hands trembling with nerves and excitement, reached to retrieve the ring from the box, it slipped from his grasp and fell through the bridge's open grating, disappearing into the snow far below.
"We panicked for a minute and then said, we need to find it," Trevor recalled.
The couple spent the next two and a half hours searching the slopes below the bridge with metal detectors provided by Pat Harper, Boyne Mountain's night shift snowmaking supervisor, who happened to have two metal detectors in his car. Around 10 p.m., after the couple had given up hope, Pat made the couple a promise: he was going to find their ring.
Within 30 minutes, his metal detector picked up a signal. He began digging through the snow, as he had done several times already that evening, but didn’t see anything. Then he pulled up a handful of snow, and there it was - the edge of the ring. He sat there amazed; he had done it.
As Trevor and Danielle were packing up to leave the next day, they received a call from Boyne Mountain with the news: the ring had been found. Trevor was finally able to place it on Danielle's hand.
"I give big props and kudos to Pat for doing that for us, because he saved the day, he really did," Danielle said. "It was an experience that we now have; a story to tell of our engagement.”
The couple plans to return to Boyne Mountain to complete their walk across the bridge.
"We'll probably come back in the wintertime to finish our journey across the bridge with the lights and enjoy the full experience that we cut short to find my ring," Danielle said.
Thanks to one determined snowmaking supervisor and a little mountain magic, Trevor and Danielle’s engagement story now has the happy ending it deserves.
