Under an avalanche for 17 hours. How the heck is it possible?

It was all over the news. But, after reading several sources, the pieces just didn’t fit together. With good air supply and proper clothing, it is possible to survive something like this, but it’s the details around the rescue that just made things fuzzy and no one has been able to give me proper explanation on what probably happened, until I saw the video interview with the victim at the hospital.

I think it may have been a bit of the usual media overhype, or rather, confusion – without their malevolence – in the articles. I had been personally affected by such “typing errors” on several occasions before. Here is what I didn’t get:

• The skier was found under 50 cm of snow with no injuries besides mild hypothermia.
• It was a rescue heli that found him 17 hrs. after the accident whose crew “spotted movement on the surface”.

On avalanche courses, we regularly burry people under 50 cm of snow, then several people jump on the snow above the burried guy or gal and we leave the client there for as long as she can stand it under the snow. (We leave the feet sticking out, so they can signal if they want to come out). From under 50 cm of snow (OK, with the lower leg uncovered) it takes about 6-8 seconds on average for the client to undig themselves and break free from under the condensed snow.

This gentleman in the Swiss Alps ended up being burried, so that – thank Goodness – he had part of his head sticking out. So the 50 cm layer is a weired figure, as his head was at least partly free. Now, you may think, he should have been able to free himself from under such little snow without any serious injuries – but fact is that his legs and arms were wide apart and just couldn’t move them. It was as if he were stuck in concrete; and moving his hips and back didn’t help either.

Movement on the surface was spotted from the heli: it was, after all, his helmet sticking out, that the morning sun probably shone on – that was spotted from the helicopter. Now it makes sense.

All in all, it’s a very happy ending and I’m glad it didn’t turn into another tragedy.

Here, the lucky guy, “in his second life”, talks to press about the event (in French, German subtitles).