GRAND FORKS - Dru Sjodin's boyfriend and former boyfriend have been covering the winter fields along with others searching for her since the University of North Dakota student disappeared last fall.

Chris Lang, 32, Sjodin's boyfriend, had talked to her on a cell phone just before she disappeared from a Grand Forks mall on Nov. 22.

Adam Schultz, 23, dated Sjodin for three years while both attended UND; they stopped dating in May 2003.

Lang met Sjodin last summer in Pequot Lakes, Minn., her hometown, where he had a summer job. He had just moved to the Minneapolis area and was between sales jobs when she disappeared.

Schultz was born in Fargo but grew up in Denver. He is studying at UND to be a commercial pilot.

In subzero temperatures over the weekend, Lang and Schultz struggled together shoulder to shoulder, drilling holes in the 3-foot ice on the Red Lake River west of Crookston, Minn.

"I met him first a couple weeks after Dru went missing," Schultz said of Lang. "We have become pretty good friends now. We are both kind of in the same situation."

Both said they will return later this month and resume looking for Sjodin. They vow not to quit until she is found.