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Utah man’s smartphone survives snowy burial, spring thaw at Brighton Resort

Posted at 9:41 PM, Jun 19, 2017
and last updated 2017-06-19 23:41:46-04

SALT LAKE CITY — Could a cellphone survive freezing temperatures and being buried under ten feet of snow for 5 months?

One Utah man says "yes," and he has the phone to prove it.

The people who run Brighton Resort tell FOX 13 late spring/early summer is like a treasure hunt for hikers. The snow has melted and they're finding jewelry, wallets, car keys and all the other stuff skiers and snowboarders lost during the ski season, including a brand new cellphone.

It started as a picture perfect night on the slopes and Darin Brooks was snapping the scenery with the camera on his smartphone.

“We were up taking a selfie above Crest. [I] put it in my pocket. I usually zip up, but we got about halfway down and noticed no phone,” Brooks said.

Brooks frantically started searching. Somewhere in the 200 acres at Brighton Resort was his brand new Samsung phone that he got just two weeks before.

“[It was] probably snowing three to four inches an hour,” Brooks said. “I was the last person off the mountain looking for it.”

Brooks accepted defeat, believing he'd never see his new phone again. But as spring hit, the snow started melting, giving way to the trails. That's when Brooks got an unexpected call from a hiker.

“A gentleman contacted me and said 'Hey, did you lose a phone at Brighton?' and I said 'Yeah, I did.'," Brooks said. "He's like 'I found it.'”

Not only did the hiker find it but when he plugged the phone in it powered on.

“No way, no way is this happening,” Brooks said.

The hiker found the phone where the last picture in Brooks' camera roll was taken.

“It was laying in the dirt and the reflection of the screen was showing and he went down to his car, plugged it in and it powered on,” Brooks said.

Call it a true Samsung survival story.

“Samsung has definitely won my heart over,” Brooks said.

Samsung isn't the only phone known to survive the snow. There's a similar story out of Russia where an iPhone was under the snow for months and still powered on.

No matter what kind of phone you have - Brooks wants you to take away this one lesson for the next ski and snowboarding season: Zip up your pockets.