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U.S.|She Vanished for 3 Weeks in the Sierra. Then the Phone Rang: ‘Dad, I’m Alive.’
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/15/us/missing-camper-safe-sierra-nevada.html
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A search for Tiffany Slaton, 28, covered roughly 600 square miles of mountainous terrain in California. She was found at a cabin, where she waited out a blizzard.
May 15, 2025, 7:17 p.m. ET
The resort, nestled in the wilds of the Sierra in California, caters to guests looking for an “off-grid getaway.”
For several months of the year, it is virtually inaccessible, the roads cut off by snow and ice, just like they were during a blizzard this week.
It’s not unusual for bears to invite themselves into the tents at the Vermilion Valley Resort, but one of the cabins was unexpectedly occupied on Wednesday when the resort’s owner, Christopher Gutierrez, went to check on the property.
“We see the door open,” Mr. Gutierrez recalled. “And I see some shoes down there. I’m like OK, well, it’s just a hiker who just decided to” take shelter from the blizzard the night before.
The person who emerged was Tiffany Slaton, a camper from Georgia who had been missing for more than three weeks and had been the focus of an intense search of roughly 600 square miles of the Sierra.
“She pops out,” he said at a news conference on Wednesday announcing that Ms. Slaton had been found. “Didn’t say a word. Just ran up, and all she wanted was a hug.”
