Whistler (eCanadaNow) - The search continues for a young Japanese student last seen snowboarding at Whistler last Thursday.  While the efforts to locate the young lady continue, her family is rushing to Canada from their home.

Young Ai Ito, a 25-year-old Whistler English student was seen at 11:30am headed up the mountain to snowboard on the Seventh Heaven Chairlift.  The chairlift is located at Blackcomb Mountain, at Whistler.

Her missing status was not reported until Sunday.  The school for English that she attends in Whistler was closed for Good Friday and the home stay family that Ms. Ito stays with did not suspect anything amiss because Ms. Ito would often stay with other people or friends on the weekends.

When it was realized that she was not staying with friends, her home stay family immediately reported her missing on Sunday, and a search was launched.

Ms. Ito is about five feet in height, and has brown eyes and dark brown hair. She is described as slim, and last seen wearing teal snowboard pants and a white snowboarding jacket.

“It appears that she is somewhere on the mountain, from how events have seemed to unfold,” said Steve LeClair, RCMP Staff Sergeant at Whistler.

“We found personal effects at her ESL Home school that she goes to, this makes us believe that she is still somewhere on the mountain,” said Sgt. LeClair.

"We're just trying to be optimistic," said Dave Cathers, manager of Whistler Search and Rescue. "We figured she's still on the mountain."