I can relate. In my haste to get off a summit pending incoming winter weather, I left my FT3DR in some tall grass near where I sat my pack down when I decided I needed to work some CW to complete the activation. I told a fellow activator about it who was heading to the same summit a few days later. No luck.
2nd activator did a cursory sweep. No go.
The first person I told about it knew of someone who was heading up so he relayed the information. I got a call from him while I was on another summit asking what type of radio it was. Lo and behold, the third activator found it! It had spent three months to the day on a North Georgia summit enduring ice, snow, rain, etc.
When I had it back in my hands, I figured worst case I had a spare antenna now. I was encouraged when I plugged it in and the display read “Charging”.
Next morning, it fired right up and I was able to hit a local repeater.
Don’t lose hope!