LA GRAVE, France – If you needed a reason to be scared of glacier skiing, this video shared by the Les Powtos crew, might do it for you. This skier, apparently in his 40s, spotted this icy crevasse on a glacier in La Grave, France, just barely too late. Though he did his best to avoid it, he took the plunge. Fortunately he was able to stop himself, and the friends he was skiing with were able to haul him out with ropes.
The POV view above is by far the scariest, but another angle was captured on drone. The hole in the ground is much more clear in the drone footage, but you can still understand why it took the skier so long to spot. The Les Powtos crew hoped the video could act as a teaching moment. Even if you know the terrain well, you need to make sure you don’t get lost in the moment. Skiing off-piste is dangerous and requires high alert the whole time.
“Everything ended well – the skier even returned to the track after taking the time to land. The Powtos want these images to be used for prevention. ‘You have to show how much, even knowing the Grave glacier, you can be fooled by dint of making descents in euphoria.”
