Avalanche Burial and Rescue Video

Posted by Robert Birming in Video Clips on October 5, 2009 at 8:15 am


A skier gets buried in an avalanche, but is rescued only four and a half minutes later. Everything gets caught on film with the video camera attached on the victim’s helmet.

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.

Link – via kottke.org


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6 comments to "Avalanche Burial and Rescue Video"

  1. pyroger101
    October 5th, 2009 at 8:48 am

    not for the claustrophobic! Lucky man!

  2. Edward
    October 5th, 2009 at 9:55 am

    Is it wrong of me to laugh at how he sounded though the snow-muffled microphone?

  3. Alejo Hausner
    October 5th, 2009 at 12:27 pm

    You could have submitted this to the Darwin awards (people whose foolishness leads to their removal from the gene pool). But that wouldn't have been appropriate: this guy was clearly athletic, a good physical specimen from the darwinian point of view. I think what you see here is that people at the top of their physical ability are the biggest risk takers. The very thing that makes you attractive to the opposite sex is what can get you killed.

    Alejo

  4. Church
    October 5th, 2009 at 12:38 pm

    The most surprising thing to me was that they apparently all carry shovels (likely repurposed entrenchment tools.) So this kind of thing is considered a possibility. While they do it.

  5. mu
    October 5th, 2009 at 1:46 pm

    Church,

    If you're in avalanche territory, you carry a shovel, probe, and beacon just like you wear a seat belt in a car. A slide is unpredictable even with proper training and precautions. And, no, they're not repurposed entrenchment tools, they're collapsable avalanche shovels that are designed for this sort of thing (compact, hollow handle for the avalanche probes, fits perfectly in your pack's straps).

    So yes, an avalanche is a known possibility in these areas and conditions, what's the big deal?

  6. Joy
    October 6th, 2009 at 12:04 am

    I could barely breathe the whole time he was buried. I'm not Claustrophobic usually. Thank heaven for his beacon.


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