Late afternoon on Sunday, June 7th 2009, Portland Mountain Rescue received a call-out from Clackamas County Sheriff's Office requesting assistance in a search for two missing teenage skiers at Timberline Lodge Ski Resort. The two skiers were last seen early in the day by friends near the Palmer ski lift and were skiing down in white out conditions but had not returned to the ski area as planned.

At approximately 6:00 pm, PMR rescuers gathered at Timberline Lodge and sent out teams to search Zig Zag Canyon and Little Zig Zag Canyon -common areas where out-of-bound skiers often end up getting lost.

Searchers discovered two sets of ski tracks in the Zig Zag Canyon (approximately 1 mile west of Timberline Ski Area boundary) around 6000 feet and followed the tracks down the mountain. A team of searchers from Pacific Northwest SAR ascended from Paradise Park Trailhead up the Zig Zag River to meet the PMR searchers who were descending. Approximately a half mile from the trailhead, PNW SAR located the lost skiers around 4:30 Sunday morning. Minutes later the two PMR teams descending the canyon met up with the PNW SAR team and missing skiers.

The skiers were in good health, only cold, hungry and tired. They were able to hike out on their own accord to the Paradise Trailhead along with the rescue team members.