On February 26, 2026, Michael Harris drove to Stevens Pass ski resort in Washington state — alone, chasing a powder day. He didn’t come home that night. But he did come home alive. And that was entirely down to an app on his wife’s phone.
Michael is an experienced skier from Bothell, Washington. He was carving runs in Big Chief Bowl — terrain he knew well. But that Thursday, the mountain had other plans. An avalanche swallowed him in seconds.
He tried the survival technique: swimming motions through the moving snow. It didn’t work — the force was too great. What saved him instead was luck: he slid into a natural hollow in the snow, staying upright as the white mass sealed around him like cement.
“The sensation was being encased in cement,” he would later tell reporters. “I could hear my phone ringing. I could feel it vibrating right over my heart. But my hand wouldn’t move.”
His wife, Penny, was calling. No answer. So she did what millions of people do every day without thinking twice: she opened Find My on her iPhone.
Michael’s dot wasn’t moving. For hours, one fixed point on a mountain slope.
“You get a feeling something’s just not right,” Penny said. “I followed my intuition, saw his location, checked it a couple times, and saw it wasn’t moving.”
She called ski patrol, got in her car, and drove up the mountain: phone in hand, his GPS coordinates on the screen.
Rescuers were ready when she arrived. They found Michael buried under several feet of snow, four hours after he disappeared. He regained consciousness in the back of an ambulance.
93% of avalanche victims survive if reached within the first 15 minutes. After two hours, survival rates approach zero. Michael was buried for four.
Doctors couldn’t fully explain how he made it. Hospital staff gave him a nickname: “The Miracle Avalanche Man.” Michael sustained hypothermia, pneumonia, a lung contusion, kidney injuries, and a right tibial plateau fracture. He went into surgery. Recovery is expected to take 14–16 weeks.
“I was inches away from the thing that could save my life, but I just couldn’t get there,” he said. “And yet because she knew how to use Find My iPhone, I’m here today.”
This isn’t a one-off. These rescues are happening all around us.
February 2026 — Lake Tahoe avalanche: Six skiers survived a deadly avalanche after using Emergency SOS via satellite on an iPhone to communicate with rescuers when there was no cell coverage. Authorities maintained contact with the group for hours while organizing the rescue.
February 2026 — New Jersey ravine rescue: A missing man was located after rescuers detected the signal from his Apple AirTag, which led them to a 40-foot ravine where he had fallen and was unable to move. He had been exposed to freezing temperatures for several hours before being pulled out by rope.
June 2025 — Snowmass Mountain rescue: A climber stranded at nearly 11,000 feet used iPhone satellite messaging to contact family when he had no cell signal. Rescuers from Mountain Rescue Aspen hiked eight miles to reach him and carried him to safety.
Why This Matters Even if You’ve Never Touched a Ski Slope
Most of us will never be buried in an avalanche. But location sharing isn’t just for extreme athletes. It’s for the teenager who should have been home two hours ago. The parent with dementia who walked out alone. The friend who was driving on a night highway stopped answering.
The point is that the feature we’re referring to is already on your iPhone. It’s free, and if you’re using Apple Family Sharing, it takes only seconds to enable. Once location sharing is on, a trusted contact can open the Find My app and see where your phone was last detected, even if you’re unable to reach it.
“I couldn’t answer,” Michael Harris said. “But the phone answered for me.”
Turn these on right now — it takes 3 minutes:
Find My (iPhone/iPad/Mac): Settings > [your name] > Find My > enable Share My Location and add family or close friends.
Emergency SOS via Satellite: available on iPhone 14 and later, automatically activates in areas with no cell coverage.
AirTag: slip one into a backpack, child’s bag, or luggage. Its signal is picked up by any nearby iPhone, even a stranger’s.
For Android users:
Use Google’s Find Hub: Settings > Google > Find My Hub > Settings > Find Hub > Allow device to be located. Then tap the plus sign on the main map to start location sharing.
Cross-OS Location Sharing: for continuous location sharing with family, regardless of which ecosystem you’re in, use Google Maps or messaging apps. Just turn it on before any risky trip.
Family tracking apps for the safety of loved ones:
Sometimes the most important button is the one you pressed before anything went wrong.
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