“I literally call it the day that I died.”
We all love deep pow days but serious accumulation comes with risk, specifically suffocation. Meet Justin Calbert, a California snowboarder was taking a solo lap after his wife had an equipment issue and headed to the repair shop when nosedived off a 20 foot cliff at Dodge Ridge Resort in Pinecrest, landing head-first in deep where he remained for minutes before anyone could get to him. When he was finally dug out Calbert didn’t have a pulse and wasn’t breathing:
“There was a time that I did not have a pulse. I wasn’t breathing. So, I was clinically dead a handful minutes before they resuscitated me.” –Calbert
Thankfully one of the people that dug him out was Modesto Fire Department engineer Jerad Heinrich who immediately administered CPR to his lifeless body. They successfully got Calbert breathing again and he was loaded on a sled by ski patrol. He was take to a hospital in Modesto where he was put into a medically induced coma and now has a clean bill of health and is deeply grateful to his rescuers.
Calbert and his wife want to remind people to ski together to avoid situations like this. Buddy system people! Hats off to the firefighter Jerad Heinrich, you the man.
