skip to 1:00 to see intense tree rescue.
This is raw footage from a tree well rescue in British Columbia. The victim falls, head first, into a tree well and is instantly buried. This isn’t a scenario- the group was out to practice an avalanche rescue and ended up performing a real rescue. The video get’s your heart racing a bit at times, and illustrates moments of panic that can happen during a rescue. The victim was fine and continued skiing. Stay safe out there!
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wow, thats scary stuff!
Doesn’t it seem a bit strange that “Avalanche Rescue Class in the BC backcountry” was only equipped with one shovel? Does that seem a bit insane / foolish or is it just me? Odd considering that it seemed everyone in the group had a backpack…. for lunch I guess.
My thoughts exactly. Like half a dozen people and one dude shoveling. Everyone else just sitting around. I was waiting for the instructor to take control of the situation and that never happened.
that shit is no joke.
I can only hope my crew is better at communication and delegation.
B Squad
How do I get a crew…all of my buddies are GAPERS!
Why was only one guy shoveling? Glad this all worked out, but most of the people in the group did absolutely nothing to help. I hope my crew would work together better if I ever get buried…
This seems like the most JV rescue. Begs the question, what’s the proper protocol for tree well burial? I’m pretty sure it’s not “we need a winch.”
I hope my friends like me better than they liked this guy… 4 minutes to dig 3 feet deep in powder? … Jesus. Camera guy takes 20 seconds to unclick out of his bindings with his hands???! Guess he doesn’t want to scratch them.. totally reasonable.
What if you have a rope, tie it around the legs, everybody grabs a hold and pulls at the same time? Good idea or no? Seems like a quick way to get someone out.
click the youtube link and read all of the criticism this guy has already gotten.. the best part is, he claims he was taking recreational skiers into the backcountry. 1st problem right there.
Excruciating to watch and easy to second guess what was a very weak team response. Shows how nobody is ever really ready for the real thing when the SHTF and why practice is so important. A 30 minute orientation does not get it done for most cat/heli guests and I’m amazed more people do not die on these trips. This could have ended up far worse if his partner had not spotted him in the well or his airway had been blocked, one very lucky dude!
No one even bothered to dig with a ski? I guess all those kooks don’t even know how to use a powder ski to dig.
no kidding! my buddies with no training would have had me out faster. he was in there for like 8 minutes. h is very lucky he had enough oxygen.
How on earth was this group of pathetic individuals out in the backcountry doing avalanche training? This guy getting stuck in a tree well was 100X easier than any avalanche full burial imaginable. If you know anyone in this group do not travel in the back country with them
Makes me happy that all of my back country buddies have even more training than I do. I feel as though I am the weak link in the group and have dug out 2 friends in the past year….. both survived and were unharmed total time for each under snow was less than 7 minutes and it was just the 3 of us. I am at a loss for words when I saw everybody standing around instead of clearing the snow from behind, removing it from the sides or even just pulling the shovels out of their packs to show a little concern “Deep breaths Lee.” Really, the last thing I want is a mouth full of snow.
I give this rescue a C- only because they got the guy out alive.
Clearly your friends don’t have enough training if two of them have been buried in one year…
I’ll take 2 serious avy’s in over 300 runs. 1 was from a small convex that we tested earlier about 100′ away that was stable to 28 and when we tested the slope where it broke it went in 11 (we tested at 38 degrees and the after test was at 41.) The second was set from a trigger point about 200′ away from the line, but was close enough to feel the carve. It was one of those situations where there was the chance, but after digging the pits on the way up we figured it was the safest and more fun route down.
Experienced people can get buried too. The snow isn’t biased.
Not to take away from how serious that was, lucky to be alive. But That was HILARIOUS “He’s screaming, so he’s breathing” HAHAHAAH. That was a total melt down by the rescue team.
i get that “staying calm” is important in a rescue situation, but this is insane. if i was the guy buried my first thought would be “thank you so much” and then when i saw the video it would change to “im never going outdoors with you fucks again”. its been said over and over but 1 shovel? multiple minutes to construct a godamn avy shovel? in a group that was supposedly doing avy rescue training? what in the fuck? how could you sit on your knees in the snow and just watch this like it was brain surgery and you were a med school student? with 4 or 5 people even just using their hands this guy could have been pulled out in just a minute or two. that was naturally settled blower pow… what the hell would these guys do in an avalanche runout?
this needs to be passed around so everyone knows how not to act in an extraction situation
Should have done a quick loc abc, especially since buddy was neck deep for a while while they were all doing up their arcteryx.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bNJi6SS5ghA&feature=related
Outside of the actual slow rescue, something isn’t right about this video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cGd1e9S90OU&feature=related
now this is a rescue
this is one of the most unorganized rescue groups I have ever witnessed – I would never go to the backcountry with any of you. You turned a simple tree well evacuation into a gong show – I would hate to see how you would react to an avalanche where someones life was in actual danger!
Ya so the guys an idiot for posting this. If its a backcountry clinic why the hell is there only one shovel… really? I would give the leader of this group an F for failing to prepare his team. An F for taking that many recreational skiers into the backcountry. An F for not telling the others to help dig.. Hey maybe just pull the dude out. Personally I think he’s just trying to show off. So many bad judgment calls but the most outrageous thing he did is posting this online for the whole world to see.
A couple things from this: (1) this was not an avy course, it was a group of recreational cat skiers, (2) if you read the youtube comments there was only one shovel because of several rookie mistakes (leaving a shovel in the cat, not having a blade, not knowing hot to assemble, etc.), (3) a victim who is screaming is a good thing (yes, it means you know they are breathing and have an airway — that is taught in most rescue/triage scenarios). This definitely could have been handled better and it is a good reminder to always check your gear when you head out. Improvise if you have to — use a ski or board to dig, even a pack can move snow if you use it properly. Good video to learn how not to act like a kook in the backcountry.
20 seconds to remove skis, 80 seconds to get a shovel off someone’s backpack, 4 minutes to rescue him, that’s straight tragic!
Weekend Warriors, Gapers, Beaters, with nice fancy gear that are lacking key rescue items and do not know how to properly get the shovels activated, sad!!!!
But I bet that can whip through some spreadsheets like it’s nobody’s business.
WoW! I think the answers to everyone’s concerns are addressed at the end of the video when the “leader” of this Shat Show starts spewing verbal diaharria about “being prepeared in the business world, is just like skiing, you gotta be taking risks and…and…and” this is obviously one of those bull-shit groups that teaches “risk-taking” to a round table of business professionals (READ: POSEURS!) who eat numbers and fire people, who ACTUALLY DO WORK, all day long for their personal entertainment.
The weird part is that they try and make it look like it’s going to be REAL PRO RESCUE information about how to do a tree well rescue. There were 2 shovels, but the “leader” couldn’t assemble HIS OWN SHOVEL!, and the guy who he asked to get it from his pack also couldn’t assemble the blade and shaft together. I bet a 5 year old would have been a better help to assemble the shovel that these two guy put together. They also couldn’t extent that shaft of the one they used in the rescue, and apparently a brand new shiney Faction ski, which would move much more snow than the again brand new shiney spatula-sized BC shovels, was also not a viable tool to anyone in the group.
It is well surprising that everyone in this group didn’t ALL fall into the same tree well and crush the first guy into a pile of lemming-gut jam at the bottom.
FAIL! Grade: D- but only because the guy lived…
Tree wells are a SERRIOUS risk. There were 2 fatalities within a month of each other at The Big Mountain, MT (yeah those who’ve been here half our lives still call it that). I got buried on Coal bank Pass, CO in a tree well on a 2-3 foot fresh day, and it was probably more scary than being caught in an avalance in the same general area. Luckily, my dog followed my tracks into the tree well and dug me out. GOOD DOG!!! 1 Lab/Springer Mix = more use than the 8 people in this video, by far. I was out in probably half the time as this. My dog dug me out and cleared a way so I could tell which direction was up, he cleared an airway for me (which NONE of these gapers thought of doing!?), so I was able to struggle to get out. I actually heard him running after me from about 100 feet away while I was buried, as the acoustics are increased during a burial, but every other sense is essentially blocked.
When I got tree welled, I hit the 60 foot tall tree with the crash, and guess where all the new snow sitting on the tree limbs went? Straight down, burying me another 2-3 feet deep, blocking out any light, filling my eyes ears and mouth with snow, and then it started to set up like hard cement just like a real avalanche.
The thing about a tree well, is that when you go in head-first, you lose all sense of direction, and as you struggle you sink deeper and it gets darker. There is nothing to push off of. In this video this skier retained his pole which may have helped him from sinking even deeper into that tree well.
Anyone know of PROPER tree well recovery techniques?