Snowboarder ‘Happy to Be Alive’ After Three Days Missing

Oleg_Ermak/iStock/Thinkstock(NEW YORK) — A snowboarder is “happy to be alive” after she spent three days missing in the Whistler, British Columbia, backcountry, a Canadian news outlet reported.

Julie Abrahamsen told Global News in Canada that the “hardest part was the nights” because it was so cold.

“I didn’t have too much clothes,” she said. “Some were wet, so I tried to make the best solution and get some sleep, but it was hard.”

Abrahamsen was spotted Saturday “in the backcountry” by searchers in a helicopter, the Whistler Royal Canadian Mounted Police said in a written statement.

Abrahamsen told Global News that when she saw the helicopter searchers, she thought, “‘Are they coming for me?’ I was really excited, and tried to run as fast as I could to the river.”

She was “in cold, but good, condition,” police said, and she was taken for medical treatment.

Abrahamsen told Global News she thinks she was “lucky with the weather.”

“It wasn’t as cold as it normally is,” she said, according to Global News. “It was pretty mild.”

Abrahamsen had last been seen Wednesday morning on Blackcomb Mountain, according to police, and then was reported missing on Friday, igniting a police and ski patrol search.

“Searchers followed the trail and, at approximately 1:30 p.m. located the missing snowboarder in cold, but good, condition,” Whistler RCMP Sgt. Rob Knapton said in a statement Saturday.

Global News reported that Abrahamsen lives in Norway and was in British Columbia on vacation. ABC News’ efforts to locate Abrahamsen for comment were not immediately successful.

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