What It's Like to Survive an Avalanche
What It's Like to Survive an Avalanche
[ September 25, 2009 - 7:17am ]
Helmet-cam captures heliskier's brush with death
We bring you this via gizmodo: head-first footage of what it's like to be caught in an avalanche. This unnamed skier decided to strap on a helmet cam while heliskiing near Haines, Alaska. He also decided to bail on a final snow check and drop right in -- along with a big chunk of surly snow. We'll let the source on the scene take up the story:
Instead he just sent it. And it didn't take more than a few turns out on this big shoulder above this cliff band to break loose. This was a decent sized avalanche. 1,500 feet the dude fell in a little over 20 seconds. The crown was about 1 - 1.5m. The chute that he got sucked through to the skier's right was flanked on either side by cliff bands that were about 30m tall. He luckily didn't break any bones and obviously didn't hit anything on the run out. He was only buried for 4 and a half minutes which is incredibly short. I cannot stress these next sentences enough; that in and of itself to be unburied in ONLY 4:28 is miraculous...
Avalanche Skier POV Helmet Cam Burial & Rescue in Haines, Alaska from Chappy on Vimeo.
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You could hear that Ava Lung hard at work under the snow there. Glad eveything turned out good but you got to remeber you gotta always check your terrain in the backcountry!!