“It was complete chance I came across him.” –Francis Zuber

Thank goodness skier Francis Zuber stumbled across this snowboarder stuck upside down in the Mt. Baker side country or he may well have died.

Zuber was skiing along with a partner when he caught a glimpse of a snowboard sticking out of the snow. It was complete chance that Zuber discovered this guy stuck in a tree well and I can not stress how dire this situation could have been had he not.

The snowboarder was riding with a friends but they became separated after taken different routes. Really makes you think about staying in visual contact with your ski partners in terrain like this. Good on Francis Zuber for the save.

“If you ski or snowboard, take a moment to watch. This happened a few weeks back at The Mt Baker Ski Area. I started writing something really long about this experience, but I’ll save that for another time and let the video speak for itself.

All I’ll say for now is the mountains don’t care how much skill or experience you have. They don’t even care if you and your ski partners are doing everything right. Take an Avy 1 course, and get trained on what to do if you find yourself in this situation. I’m thankful I knew just enough to scrape by and perform a successful rescue. And always look out for each other out there.

One detail I wanted to add that isn’t entirely clear in the video is that the snowboarder who was buried was with a different group. All very experienced riders, carrying proper avy gear and walkies. They took a route through the trees, planning to meet up on the other side, something we’ve all done countless times. It was complete chance I came across him.”

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