Meredith Martin lost her iPhone while riding a chairlift at Blue Mountain Resort in southwestern Ontario in late January.
The device, Apple’s iPhone 13 Pro Max, was returned to her five weeks later, and Martin was surprised to see the smartphone still powered on.
“I didn’t expect it to work,” Martin, a Toronto-based journalist, told MobileSyrup.
But the phone wasn’t the only thing of interest. What was more important was recovering the sensitive information attached to the device, including a credit card and driver’s license.
Martin, who says she’s not a fan of Apple’s business practices, was surprised the hardware survived five weeks under the snow.
The reason the device ended up in her possession is due to her former role as a union president for the TVO branch of the Canadian Media Guild. Employees took part in an 11-week-long strike last year.
The union needed a camera to create content with and decided to purchase a refurbished iPhone 13 Pro Max to share. However, members used their own equipment to produce content.
“I didn’t expect it to work,” said Martin.
When the strike ended, Martin was one of a handful of members who were bought out. While tying up loose ends, she decided to buy the device from the union.
“That was better for them to have cash that they could use than this phone that nobody else really needed. And it saved me from having to transfer all my data back.”
Weeks later, Martin was on a ski trip with her twin 16-year-old daughters. Deciding to make the most of her time, she trekked out to the slopes as her daughters, like most teenagers, slept in.
Martin had warned her family not to call her, asking them to text while she skied. When she got a call from one of her daughters who was having trouble with her skies, Martin was compelled to answer.
Disaster struck when the call ended. Preoccupied with thoughts of helping her daughter, the device fell down into the snow as she slipped it back into her pocket.
Did I every tell you guys about the time I dropped my iPhone 13 Pro Max off a chairlift at Blue Mountain and then bought a useless Canadian Tire $60 metal detector to try and find it?
That was 5 weeks ago.
— Meredith Martin (@meredithmartin) March 5, 2024
Martin thought finding the phone would be a hassle-free task. The other skiers on the chairlift helped her determine where the phone fell, and she asked staff for assistance, but they came up empty-handed.
She decided to extend her ski trip by two days to try and find the device. She returned to the slopes with a handheld metal detector she purchased from Canadian Tire but couldn’t locate the smartphone.
Martin turned on ‘Lost Mode’ and added her daughter’s contact information, giving anyone who found the device a way to contact her. She also filed a report with the ski resort, which opened a ticket under their ticket system. Martin said she regularly received emails from the resort, asking if she located the lost device, but eventually, the emails stopped.
“I kind of was like, well, I guess their ticket system even gives up eventually.”
Well, someone turned it in and it still works!
So yes, Apple is anti competitive and evil, but their hardware lasted under snow for 5 freaking weeks!
— Meredith Martin (@meredithmartin) March 5, 2024
Martin still made weekend trips from Toronto in search of the lost device. As her hope dwindled, she received a call from her daughter, the same one whose information she added under Lost Mode. Someone from the resort reached out, telling Martin’s daughter they located the iPhone, complete with the missing personal items. Martin was already in the area as part of her ongoing efforts to track down the phone.
After letting the device dry out for a day, Martin examined the damage. “I didn’t expect it to work.” To her surprise, the battery accepted a charge. Only one of the rear corners of the iPhone 13 Pro Max was damaged.
She put some duct tape on the device and took it to the Apple Store. Testing revealed the camera was fine, but she would have to pay $600 to repair the damage.
Apple released the iPhone 13 lineup in September 2021.
Martin ended up taking the device to a non-Apple repair shop for restoration.
Asked if the experience made her want to buy from the company again, Martin said it was a “tricky thing” to answer.
“The fact that this thing fell… into a snowbank and lived to tell the tale definitely makes me understand how tied I am to this company.”
There’s no arguing about the quality of Apple’s hardware, but migrating data from an Apple device to an Android smartphone presents a “considerable hassle,” Martin said.
“It’s such a tricky thing with Apple because their anti-competitive practices make you tied to their products.”
🥰🫶🏼💀 pic.twitter.com/BGVTrtsHJl
— Meredith Martin (@meredithmartin) March 5, 2024
Earlier this month, the European Commission ordered Apple to pay 1.8 billion euros (more than $2.6 billion CAD) in an antitrust fine over music streaming terms. The company has also been embroiled in a legal fight with Epic Games over its App Store practices, which has recently extended to the EU.
Closer to home, a B.C. judge approved a class-action settlement stemming from a complaint that Apple’s software slowed down some older model phones. The settlement is not an admission of wrongdoing.
Given the amount of money Martin paid to track down the device — from the extended time on the slopes to device restoration — she decided to keep it. She’ll be holding onto the device “until it really dies.”
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