Missing Mt. Bachelor skier found after cold night on mountain

(Update: Video added)

Calif. woman skied into trees, crashed, walked partway down, went to sleep

BEND, Ore. (KTVZ) -- A skier at Mt. Bachelor who was reported missing late Christmas Day, prompting an overnight search, walked down the peak after crashing and was found Thursday morning, cold and tired but uninjured, a search official said.

Ashlee Gingerich, 30, of Grass Valley, Calif., "walked in, is ambulatory and walking out with staff," Lt. Bryan Husband, Deschutes County Sheriff's Search and Rescue coordinator, told NewsChannel 21 just after 9 a.m.

Gingerich was "very cold and tired, but otherwise uninjured," Husbgand said. She was treated at the resort by Mt. Bachelor staff.

Shortly after 5 p.m. Wednesday, deputies were contacted by the Mt. Bachelor Ski Patrol about the overdue skier, who had not reunited with her party at the popular Central Oregon ski resort, Husband said.

The Ski Patrol had swept all of the runs on the 9,068-foot mountain and searched likely areas without success, Husband said.

Sheriff's Search and Rescue sent a deputy and nine volunteers to search late Wednesday, using skiers to search treed areas in the area Gingerich was last seen. They also used a drone with infrared (heat-sensing) capabilities to look for Gingerich, who Husband said did not have a cellphone with her.

The SAR effort with skiers and a drone operator stopped around 3 a.m., but resort workers out grooming ski runs kept searching for Gingerich through the night, Husband said.

Around 8:30 a.m., full search efforts resumed, with 18 SAR volunteers, two deputies and numerous Mt. Bachelor Ski Patrol staff.

Deputies also asked the public for help Thursday morning in efforts to find Gingerich, who last was seen around 3:40 p.m. Wednesday near the top of the Sunrise chairlift.

After she was found, Gingerich told deputies she was unable to remember which direction she had skied after taking the Sunrise lift. She said she skied into the trees, and ultimately crashed, Husband said.

Gingerich then left her skis and poles behind and walked partway down the mountain before falling asleep at the base of a tree. She said she woke up just before sunrise Thursday and walked the rest of the way down to the mountain, to where she was found by Ski Patrol staff at the Cloudchaser lift.

"Alcohol was involved," Husband wrote, "and is believed to be a cause for Gingerich's unknown direction of travel."

The weather conditions were cooperative with search efforts, though cold, with no new snow in recent days, overnight temperatures in the teens, fair visibility and light winds.

"The Deschutes County Sheriff's Office would like to encourage those recreating in the backcountry, as well as Mt. Bachelor, to keep your cellphone with you if at all possible, so you are able to communicate an emergency if it arises, whether for yourself or someone else," Husband said in a news release.

"Keep the cell phone in a warm inner pocket and in 'airplane mode,' so as to extend the battery life," he added. "Ski or recreate with a partner, and communicate a plan with your partner on what you will do or where you will meet, if you get separated."