During a nerve-wracking proposal on a lofty Michigan suspension bridge, a man’s engagement ring slipped from his grasp, spiraling 118 feet into the snow below.

Trevor Van Camp had just popped the question to his long-time partner, Danielle Jenkins, amidst the festive glow of Christmas lights on the SkyBridge at Boyne Mountain in northern Michigan. As he knelt on one knee, the ring slipped through the bridge’s grating.

“As I reached for the ring, understandably nervous, I looked down—a big mistake—and accidentally dropped it,” Van Camp recounted.

Initially panicked, the couple quickly decided they had to find the lost ring.

With permission from the resort, Van Camp and Jenkins descended the snowy mountain, spending two and a half hours searching. They were aided by the resort’s night shift snowmaking supervisor, Pat Harper, and metal detectors.

The couple got clearance from the resort to go down the snowy mountain and spent two and a half hours searching with metal detectors along with the resort’s night shift snowmaking supervisor, Pat Harper. 

The ring slipped through Trevor Van Camp’s fingers and fell off the 118-foot suspension bridge. (Boyne Mountain Resort)

Harper said that just as the couple was preparing to give up the search around 10 p.m., his metal detector pinged. After using his hand to move a little snow and dirt, he discovered the edge of a ring sticking out of the ground.

“I kind of sat there for a minute and I was like, ‘There’s no way you just found that,” he said.

Pat Harper, the resort’s night shift snowmaking supervisor, found the ring using a metal detector just as the couple was giving up their hours-long search. (Boyne Mountain Resort)

The couple was overjoyed that Harper had found the ring.

“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.”

With the ring now on Jenkins’ finger and a fun story to tell, the couple said they’d return to the resort to finish their walk across the SkyBridge.

“We’ll probably come back in the wintertime to finish our journey across the bridge with the lights and enjoy the full experience that we cut short to find my ring,” Jenkins said.