Chloe Boulle was excited to go on a school trip to the snow when she was 16, but the getaway quickly turned into her (and every parent’s) worst nightmare.
A holiday at a popular ski resort in New South Wales was Chloe’s first – and last – time snowboarding after a series of events left her stranded on the slopes and she quickly lost hope.
The Gold Coast youngster, now 24, told FEMAIL she had been enjoying a beautiful day on the slopes with plenty of people around when things took a turn.
Chloe, her class, teachers, and resort staff took a shuttle to the top of the mountain and did their best to stay together.
“We got to a point where the course turned left, going around a mountain. I saw all my friends, teachers and instructors turning around and behind me I knew there were other people on vacation snowboarding and skiing,” he said.
“But when I turned the corner, everyone had disappeared. The people behind me should have followed me, but no one came.”
Suddenly, Chloe found herself in the “middle of nowhere” with no one in sight.
“I think I was in shock and in total confusion, unable to process what was happening,” he said.
Chloe Boulle was excited to go on a school trip to the snow when she was 16, but the getaway quickly turned into her (and every parent’s) worst nightmare.
Chloe said she was only five seconds behind her group and didn’t understand how everyone had disappeared so quickly.
“I was trying to justify everyone’s disappearance with logic. I thought that maybe everyone had gotten to the end of the course before me. Maybe everyone behind me had passed me by when I was looking down,” he recalls.
“But this was impossible because of the number of people in the snow. It was a very sunny day and there were people everywhere, until suddenly there were no more people and I was left completely alone.”
Chloe also shared the terrifying and worryingly relatable experience in a TikTok video that has now gone viral.
The trip to a popular ski resort in New South Wales was Chloe’s first and last time snowboarding.
“I pulled out my phone to call my best friend and I distinctly remember it was 75 percent charged, but as soon as I pressed the little circle to get into my phone, the whole screen went black. The ‘no battery’ sign appeared,” she said.
“The only way I can understand what happened is that somehow everyone got to the end of the track before me and everyone behind me overtook me without realising it. I was trying to find a solution.”
Not knowing what to do, he continued snowboarding down the hill in hopes of reaching the end.
“I was trying my best to snowboard but I kept falling so I decided to give up, take my board off and walk,” Chloe said.
Chloe said she was only five seconds behind her group and didn’t understand how everyone had disappeared so quickly.
He walked for an hour carrying the heavy snowboard on a thick layer of snow, which gave him the feeling of “walking on sand.”
Chloe continued to hold on to hope and was determined to return to safety.
After walking, he came across an old and “dirty” ski lift.
“I thought my best chance was to get on this ski lift so I could get to the top and have a look around, hoping to find where the main area is,” he continued.
“But… there was nothing but snow and trees. Obviously I was going crazy because it was dusk, it was about to get dark. But then I was also thinking: how the hell did this happen?”
At that moment she burst into tears, not knowing what to do, and thought she was going to die.
“The sun was setting quickly and I didn’t know if I would be able to survive a night outside in freezing temperatures alone. Plus, I was so hungry because it was dinner time,” she continued.
“I remember crying and wishing I could be warm at home with my mom. I remember saying out loud to my mom, my sisters, and my pets that I loved them, basically saying goodbye to them.”
The day turned into night, there were no city lights, she could barely see anything in front of her, and she couldn’t use her phone’s flashlight.
When she thought all hope was lost and no one would find her, she saw a bright light in the distance that led her to a staircase and a subway train.
“How that got there, I don’t know… it doesn’t make any sense that there would be a proper station there because it was in the middle of nowhere,” Chloe said.
“But the metro did indeed arrive, I got on and it took me to the shuttle buses. I took a bus back to the cabin.”
Relieved to be back in a safe place, Chloe saw her group of school friends and teachers having dinner together and wondered where she was (file image)
Relieved to be back in a safe place, Chloe saw her group of school friends and teachers having dinner together. They had been wondering where she was.
She said she was puzzled that they didn’t seem concerned.
“I thought, ‘Isn’t anyone looking for me?’ Everyone was very casual and not rude, saying, ‘Hey, Chloe, there you are,'” she said.
“It was almost like they were listening to me through a filter and not getting the gravity of what I was trying to say. Everything was strange. The energy was off.”
He subsequently refused to return to the slopes and remained inside his cabin until the end of the trip.
“My mother was very distressed, she believed that what had happened (the disappearance of everyone) was strange, but she was also furious with the teachers,” she said.
