“Even when you are with the best locals, the mountain can always surprise you! The Airbag was not necessary but safety counts above all in the mountain! The lesson is that avalanches are often bigger than we imagine and that safety counts before pleasure and performance.”

Looks like a Pakistani alpine guide who does trekking tours of K2 will have quite a story to tell when he get back to Pakistan after the Verbier locals he was shredding with triggered a big ole avalanche in the Swiss Alps.  He might not have ended up needing the airbag but he’d have been a fool not pull it when he did:

“We knew there was a wind plate and we wanted to make her leave but the size of the avalanche really surprised me – fortunately I have good reflexes, a good board and an ice ax to stop me.”