Well that was certainly exciting....

Got a call from the daughter - who went out for a little hike with some friends, including our Japanese exchange student.

"I'm at the top of Mount Alexandra. You can pick us up at the lake in an hour."

Whoa. Let's backtrack a second. Four girls in the middle of the bush (national forest) a few kilometers from anywhere (with people) wearing nothing but skimpy walking clothes. You'll reach the lake in an hour? Honey, I hate to tell you this but the sun sets in ten minutes. This is the dead of winter (it snowed last night). As soon as you lose daylight, the temperature is going to drop to zero. Start running right now. Don't walk fast. RUN. You've only got maybe twenty minutes of light left. Then you've got nothing. You can't use your flashlight app on your phone because we may need to talk to you. Don't waste the battery.

Needless to say it was an interesting evening. Mobilised the other parents involved - who were freaking just as much as I was. People get lost in the bush all the time and are never found - or bodies are found months later.  I'm thinking how I'm going to explain a missing daughter to Japanese parents. The other parents were trying to figure out how to explain to Italian parents that their daughter might be missing in the bush.

But we'll cut to the chase - everybody is OK. Whew!