BOYNE FALLS — A marriage proposal on SkyBridge Michigan at Boyne Mountain Resort turned into a search effort when an engagement ring slipped through the bridge’s open grating and fell 118 feet onto the snow-covered ski slopes below.
According to a a Jan. 5 news release from the resort, Trevor Van Camp of Rochester Hills had planned a surprise weekend getaway after his girlfriend, Danielle Jenkins, sent him TikToks of SkyBridge Michigan, an illuminated suspension bridge perched between two mountain peaks.
After taking a chairlift to the top of the slopes, the couple began walking across the bridge when Van Camp stopped and said he wanted to take a picture. He then got down on one knee and proposed. Jenkins said yes.
As Van Camp reached to retrieve the ring from the box, it slipped from his grasp and dropped through the grating, disappearing into the snow below.
“We panicked for a minute and then said, we need to find it,” Van Camp said.
The couple spent the next two and a half hours searching the slopes below the bridge with metal detectors provided by Pat Harper, the resort’s night shift snowmaking supervisor, who had two metal detectors in his car.
Around 10 p.m., after the couple had given up hope, Harper promised to keep looking, according to the release. Within 30 minutes, his metal detector picked up a signal. After digging through the snow several times, Harper pulled up a handful of snow and spotted the edge of the ring.
As the couple packed up to leave the next day, they received a call from Boyne Mountain that the ring had been found, the resort said. Van Camp was then able to place it on Jenkins’ hand.
“I give big props and kudos to Pat for doing that for us, because he saved the day, he really did,” Jenkins 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, Jenkins said.
SkyBridge Michigan opened in 2022 and is described in the release as the world’s longest timber-towered suspension bridge. It spans nearly 1,200 feet and is suspended 118 feet above the Boyne Valley.
Boyne Mountain Resort opened in 1948 in Boyne Falls and is a member of the Boyne Resorts family of resorts and attractions, per to the release.