Ski resort cleans up 780 pounds of ‘unhinged' trash buried under snow — including a message in a bottle

New York Post

24-06-2025

They were frozen in time.
Colorado ski resort employees who were cleaning up the mountain post-season found a staggering 780 pounds of trash that had been hidden under the snow — including an iPod Nano and a 'message' in a bottle, per a viral Facebook post.
The Mountain Cleanup Day went down this month at the Breckenridge Ski Resort, which shut its doors in mid-May, Fox News reported.
'In addition to being the right thing to do for our mountain, it's also a fun paid event to connect with our teammates [and] see what wacky items may have been lost in the season's powder days,' Maxwell Winter, Senior Communications Manager at the lodge, told the Post.
4 An iPod Nano, which was discontinued in 2017.
Instagram/@breckenridgemtn
4 Breckenridge employee holding vapes.
Instagram/@breckenridgemtn
This year, over 150 employees took to the slopes to clear the alpine wonderland of refuse, during which they found a veritable treasure trove of 'unhinged' items.
Along with an unsurprising assortment of lost ski poles and boots, the mountain maintenance team found broken phones, glasses, air pods, a spatula, a driver's license and a Canadian two-dollar coin.
They said their 'most unique find' was a note in a bottle, which the Breckenridge crew joked said everything from 'Drink your Ovaltine' to 'Stuck in a bottle, send help,' according to Winter.
4 Some of the other miscellaneous items found during the cleanup.
Instagram/@breckenridgemtn
To the communications manager's chagrin, however, the so-called mysterious correspondence turned out to be an 'individual's old COVID-19 vaccination card.'
But the crown jewel of oddball items was an iPod Nano, which was notably discontinued in 2017.
4 Some of the lost Airpods found on the mountain.
Instagram/@breckenridgemtn
Facebook commenters were bemused by the oddball items.
'The hamburger flipper stumps me,' exclaimed one awestruck commenter, while another wrote, 'Some gold in them hills!'
'Maintenance got the really good stuff before the cleanup,' quipped a third.
Meanwhile, others joked that the crew likely found a lot of drugs that they couldn't show on camera.
Others shared their own stories of peculiar items that were lost and found on a ski slope.
'I lost a phone at Beaver Creek 4 years ago and someone found it last summer while mountain biking and called me to ask if it was mine and did I need it because it still worked!!' said one commenter.
Another wrote, 'My husband has forever enshrined an AirPod at the Paramount lift at WP. He always have me grief for my wired headphones. THAT is why I stay old school.'
'We used to call it nickle-nosing, as we walked up the hill under the chairlift and found all sorts of treasures after the melt. Good times,' mentioned a third.