LOS ANGELES (AP) — A 28-year-old woman described Friday how she survived for weeks outdoors in California's eastern Sierra Nevada by foraging for food and drinking melted snow after a solo camping trip went awry during harsh winter weather.
Tiffany Slaton detailed her ordeal during a news conference with the Fresno County Sheriff's Department, two days after she was found in a cabin that the owner had left unlocked in case wayward hikers needed shelter. Authorities said she had been there for only eight hours before the cabin's owner arrived and discovered her.
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Tiffany Slaton, a hiker found in the High Sierra after going missing for three weeks, speaks during a press conference, Friday, May 16, 2025 in Fresno, Calif. (AP Photo/Gary Kazanjian)
Tiffany Slaton, a hiker found in the High Sierra after going missing for three weeks, speaks during a press conference as her parents Bobby and Fredrina look on, Friday, May 16, 2025 in Fresno, Calif. (AP Photo/Gary Kazanjian)
The mother of Tiffany Slaton, Fredrina, reacts to her daughter being found in the High Sierra after going missing for three weeks, during a press conference, Friday, May 16, 2025 in Fresno, Calif. (AP Photo/Gary Kazanjian)
Tiffany Slaton, a hiker found in the High Sierra after going missing for three weeks, speaks during a press conference, Friday, May 16, 2025 in Fresno, Calif. (AP Photo/Gary Kazanjian)
Slaton described being caught in an avalanche at one point, causing her to fall and hurt her leg. She didn’t say which day that happened. She had a bicycle, a tent, two sleeping bags and food, she said, but she ended up losing all of her equipment, leaving her with only a lighter, a knife and some snacks. She didn’t describe how she lost her tent or other gear.
After she fell, Slaton said she tried calling 911 five times with no success but got a GPS signal on her phone.
“I ended up on this very long, arduous journey that I journaled to try and keep sane and eventually managed to get to civilization,” she said.
Authorities called her survival stunning given the conditions. The cabin was more than 20 miles (32 kilometers) from where she had last been seen, and the mountains were covered in up to 12 feet (3.66 meters) of snow in some areas.
“I would have never anticipated her in my wildest dreams being able to get back as far as she did,” Sheriff John Zanoni said.
Slaton had been on an extended biking and backpacking trip that also included time in Oregon, department spokesman Tony Botti said. Her journey took her to the Sierras, where she decided to make the trek to the Mono Hot Springs before meeting a friend in mid-April, he said. She was last seen on April 20 by a security camera near Huntington Lake, an unincorporated mountain community, riding on a bicycle and also sitting on a sidewalk with a backpack.
Slaton’s parents, who live in Georgia, reported her missing on April 29 after they hadn't heard from her in a week.
Slaton, who was a competitive archer in her home country of Bermuda, said her athleticism and foraging knowledge helped her survive. She had some snacks on her but eventually ran out.
The owner of Vermilion Valley Resort, Christopher Gutierrez, said his staff left cabin doors unlocked during the winter in case someone needed shelter during the frequent mountain snowstorms. His backcountry lodge sits in the Sierra Nevada about halfway between Yosemite and Sequoia and Kings Canyon national parks and is a frequent stop for hikers on the John Muir and Pacific Crest trails.
Slaton found safe haven in one of those cabins during an intense snowstorm where all she could see was white, she said. It was just eight hours later that Gutierrez arrived to open the cabin for the season, authorities said.
“If he hadn't come that day, I think they would have found my body there,” Slaton said.
Two days earlier, the Fresno County Sheriff’s office called off a search that had covered more than 600 square miles (1,550 square kilometers) of the Sierra National Forest, with no luck. Searchers were hampered by heavy snow blocking many roads.
Slaton emerged battered and bruised from the cabin Wednesday.
When she saw Gutierrez, she ran up to him to give him a hug.
“I really do have a new faith in humanity,” Slaton said of surviving her ordeal.
Tiffany Slaton, a hiker found in the High Sierra after going missing for three weeks, speaks during a press conference, Friday, May 16, 2025 in Fresno, Calif. (AP Photo/Gary Kazanjian)
Tiffany Slaton, a hiker found in the High Sierra after going missing for three weeks, speaks during a press conference as her parents Bobby and Fredrina look on, Friday, May 16, 2025 in Fresno, Calif. (AP Photo/Gary Kazanjian)
The mother of Tiffany Slaton, Fredrina, reacts to her daughter being found in the High Sierra after going missing for three weeks, during a press conference, Friday, May 16, 2025 in Fresno, Calif. (AP Photo/Gary Kazanjian)
Tiffany Slaton, a hiker found in the High Sierra after going missing for three weeks, speaks during a press conference, Friday, May 16, 2025 in Fresno, Calif. (AP Photo/Gary Kazanjian)
CRANS-MONTANA, Switzerland (AP) — Swiss investigators believe sparkling flares atop Champagne bottles started a fire in a bar at an Alpine ski resort that left 40 people dead and another 119 injured during a New Year’s celebration.
Most injuries, many of them serious, occurred when the blaze swept through the crowded bar in southwestern Switzerland in the early hours of Thursday.
The Crans-Montana resort is best known as an international ski and golf venue. Overnight, the Le Constellation bar morphed from a scene of revelry into the site of one of Switzerland’s worst tragedies.
Here’s what we know:
The blaze broke out around 1:30 a.m. Thursday during a holiday celebration inside the Le Constellation bar.
Two women told French broadcaster BFMTV they were inside when they saw a male bartender lifting a female colleague on his shoulders as she held a lit candle in a bottle. The flames spread, collapsing the wooden ceiling, they told the broadcaster.
People tried to escape from a nightclub area in the basement, up a flight of stairs and through a narrow door, causing a crowd surge, one of the women said.
A young man at the scene said people smashed windows to escape, reported BFMTV. He said he saw about 20 people scrambling to get out of the smoke and flames.
Gianni Campolo, a Swiss 19-year-old who was in Crans-Montana on vacation, rushed to help first responders after receiving a call from a friend who escaped the inferno. He described a scene of people trapped on the ground, severely injured and burned.
“I have seen horror and I don’t know what else would be worse than this,” Campolo told French broadcaster TF1.
Swiss officials described the blaze as a likely flashover, meaning that it triggered the release of combustible gases that can then ignite violently.
The injured suffered from serious burns and smoke inhalation. Some were flown to specialist hospitals across the country and elsewhere in Europe.
Authorities urged people to show caution in the coming days to avoid any incidents that could require the already overwhelmed medical resources.
Out of the 119 injured, 113 have now been identified, officials said Friday.
The severity of the burns has made it very difficult to identify bodies, bringing fresh agony for families who now must hand over DNA samples to authorities. In some cases, wallets and any ID documents inside turned to ash in the flames.
Emanuele Galeppini, a promising 17-year-old Italian golfer who competed internationally, is officially listed as one of Italy’s missing nationals. His uncle Sebastiano Galeppini told Italian news agency ANSA that their family is awaiting the DNA checks, though the Italian Golf Federation on its website announced that he had died.
Italy's foreign minister, Antonio Tajani, said that 13 Italian citizens were injured and six remained missing by midday Friday. Galeppini’s name was on the missing persons list.
France's foreign ministry said eight French people are missing and another nine are among the injured. Top-flight French soccer team FC Metz said one of its trainee players, 19-year-old Tahirys Dos Santos, was badly burned and has been transferred by plane to Germany for treatment.
On Instagram, an account filled up with photos of people who remained unaccounted for, with their friends and relatives begging for tips about the whereabouts of the missing.
The injured include 71 Swiss nationals, 14 French and 11 Italians, along with citizens of Serbia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Luxembourg, Belgium, Portugal and Poland, Valais Canton police commander Frédéric Gisler said Friday. The nationalities of 14 people remain unclear.
The nearby regional hospital in Sion took in a flood of victims from the fire. Its general director, Eric Bonvin, recounted how staff scrambled to determine the extent of people’s injuries.
The hospital — in the heart of the Alps and no stranger to winter sports accidents — was well staffed for the end of the year, when crowds flock to the mountains. On top of that, many colleagues who had not been scheduled to work rushed in to lend a hand.
Still the hospital, which is about 10 kilometers (6 miles) from the resort by air, quickly hit full capacity, authorities said, taking in about 80 seriously injured people in just three hours.
As of Friday, the hospital still had about 30 seriously injured patients in its care.
With high-altitude ski runs rising around 3,000 meters (nearly 9,850 feet) in the heart of the Valais region’s snowy peaks and pine forests, Crans-Montana is one of the top venues on the World Cup circuit.
The resort will host the best men’s and women’s downhill racers, including Lindsey Vonn, for their final events before the Milan Cortina Olympics in February.
The town’s Crans-sur-Sierre golf club, down the street from the bar, stages the European Masters each August on a picturesque course.
Dazio reported from Berlin and Leicester reported from Sion, Switzerland. Geir Moulson in Berlin, Graham Dunbar in Geneva and Nicole Winfield in Rome contributed to this report.
A police officer helps a boy to light a candle near the sealed off Le Constellation bar in Crans-Montana, Swiss Alps, Switzerland, Friday, Jan. 2, 2026, where a devastating fire left dead and injured during the New Year's celebrations. (AP Photo/Baz Ratner)
Police officers inspect the area where a fire broke out at the Le Constellation bar and lounge leaving people dead and injured, during New Year’s celebration, in Crans-Montana, Swiss Alps, Switzerland, Thursday, Jan. 1, 2026. (Jean-Christophe Bott/Keystone via AP)
