Last week, a post on Reddit’s skiing subreddit went viral over a photo of an avalanche. A day later, the survivor of the avalanche (Reddit user ivanane44) gave the whole story.
While driving through a valley, an avalanche rammed a snowcat and broke through the windows. Over the next minutes, the individual tried to move the snow away from his body and see if the two other people around him were ok. Luckily, the person was saved by guests who were in the back of the snowcat, which was less buried than the front. There were some injuries from the slide, but no fatalities.
Here was the individual’s full perspective on the avalanche:
“This happened back in February during my first season working as a tail guide for a cat skiing operation. I won’t say exactly where, but it was a remote mountain village.
Because of heavy snowfall, we couldn’t go far from the village for most of that week, so we stayed skiing inside the local terrain. But one day, a cat crew from another company decided to push further out into the backcountry. Since we were the closest safety crew, we had to follow in case something went wrong, like an avalanche.
Another cat from our company joined us, so we had three cats operating in the same area that day.
Everything went fine until around 2:30 p.m. when we stopped for lunch at the bottom of the hill. After eating, we decided to do one last run before heading home. The other crew finished lunch before us and left about five minutes ahead. We followed shortly after.
To get back uphill, you first pass through a valley. Everything seemed totally normal. We were all sitting in the cabin talking. I was texting and didn’t have my gloves on when, suddenly, something hit us from behind — hard.
All the windows instantly turned white — completely covered in snow. The cat jerked forward and sped up, then the windows shattered and snow rushed inside. It took a second to process, but we had been hit by an avalanche.
We were dragged somewhere around 100 to 150 meters, though it felt way longer. It was chaotic. When we finally stopped, everything was silent and pitch black. I couldn’t see anything, and I could barely move. My hands were freezing, and I honestly thought we were buried head-first and wouldn’t make it out.
I started chewing the snow around my face to make an air pocket. My right arm was stuck, but I was able to free my left and dig toward my face. Eventually, I managed to break through and saw a small beam of light. I was sitting on the center console, which meant I was a bit higher than the driver and the other guide. At first, I thought the sunroof had broken, but it turned out the avalanche had completely ripped the roof off — that’s where the light was coming from.
I heard the driver calling out, and after confirming he was okay, I started trying to get to my radio. It was in my left chest pocket, but I needed my right hand to reach it — and that hand was completely pinned. I couldn’t move it more than a few centimeters, and the snow was too dense. I started losing hope again.
There was still no sign of the lead guide, who had been sitting to my left. The cat was tilted in that direction too, so I figured he must’ve been buried even deeper.
Then I saw a face appear above us — one of the guests.
They hadn’t been buried as badly in the back of the cat and had managed to climb out. They immediately came back to help and started digging us out. Once they freed my right arm and I could finally reach my radio, I called for help.
Less than a minute later, the other cat showed up.
As it turns out, our lead guide had stayed calm during the avalanche and purposefully squeezed his radio mic, just like we’re trained to do. The other teams heard his heavy breathing over the radio — no words, just static and breathing — and they knew something was wrong. The crew ahead of us turned around right away and came back to find us.
In the end, everyone survived. A few people had broken bones and some frostbite, but it could’ve been so much worse.
Definitely the scariest experience of my life — and one I’ll never forget.”
Image Credits: ivanane44
