Ski Bum Poet

Avalanche Skier POV Helmet Cam Burial & Rescue in Haines, Alaska

Jesse posted a link to this video on the AltaCam skiing forum recently, and I just had a chance to watch. It’s about 8 and a half minutes long. With the avalanche occurring in view at skier’s right around 1 minute 17 seconds in. The remaining 6+ minutes of footage is POV of being buried alive in a slide. Incredibly intense and scary to watch, but it’s important that you watch it…the whole thing. Here is a quote from the story included at Vimeo.

The guy in the video was the first one to drop from their group and while not a guide (he was going tail-gunner style), had a lot of Utah and AK backcountry experience. He had a Black Diamond Avalung on, but as you can tell from the video while he’s talking as he’s dropping in, it wasn’t in his mouth to start. He tried to shove it in the instant of starting to get sucked down, but it didn’t stay. It was just off to the corner of his mouth he said, and he definitely got snow / ice build up as you’ll see on the second sweep of the mouth by the guide after they get to him…

Glad to see this turned out ok in the end, but a good reminder to everyone who enjoys the mountains in the winter…

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 29th, 2009 at 3:26 pm and is filed under Avalanche Safety, Skiing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.