Hundreds upon hundreds of bags and luggage destined for places like Aruba and Pakistan sat in nicely roped-in sections of Pearson International’s Terminal 3 as lifeless conveyor belts and massive winter storms froze travellers’ plans and stranded their belongings.

Shannon Koves, with a perplexed look on her face, went up and down some aisles of several hundred bags on Tuesday hoping to get a glimpse of her daughter’s baggage, which contained all her downhill ski gear that should have accompanied her to Kelowna, B.C., for new year’s swooshing on powder snow.

Instead, her mom was at Terminal 3 sleuthing through the baggage.

“Her snowsuit, mitts, any clothes, her toiletries, boots, shoes, everything,” Koves said. “She didn’t have a carry-on because she wanted to be considerate for other passengers.”

“Apparently there is a basement full of luggage, but you can’t go look at it,” Koves added, rolling her eyes. “You can’t go look at it unless you have a representative and there are no representatives.”

A massive winter storm that started a week ago in Vancouver was followed by a second one, wreaking havoc from coast to coast, affecting airports, roads and railways across Canada and the U.S., snowing in one the busiest travel times of the year.

John Petrella and his wife Sandi, from Niagara, were supposed to fly to Cuba for a 10-day fun-in-the-sun trip on Monday. Their flight was delayed, so they came back to the airport Tuesday.