By Jade Irons
A compelling video of a skier rescued after being buried under the snow in an avalanche is doing the rounds on the internet.
The amazing escape took place in April last year in Haines, Alaska.
The skier was wearing a helmet camera which captured his descent, his time under the snow and eventually, after about four minutes, his rescuers digging him out.
The eight minute video captures a 1500 foot fall in just over 20 seconds. Within seconds snow flurries fill up the camera, before it begins flickering from blue to white to black and then settles to blue.
The video was posted online by Chappy, who writes: "In the time that he's buried, you can hear his breathing already accelerate. The ruffling noise back and forth is his chest rising and falling and the noise that his jacket makes. The intermittent whimpering noise you hear is him trying to swallow and get some air since the avalung (a breathing device which is used to prolong the supply of oxygen for avalanche victims by recycling air) wasn't fully in his mouth and instead just to the corner of his mouth."
Remarkably the skier did not break any bones and ended up on his back, so that the camera on his helmet captures his incredible rescue.
He gasps and cries in disbelief as he hears the sounds of digging after what must have seemed like an eternity.
The rescuers were able to find him thanks to a glove which flew off his hand as he fell.
"The digging out is utterly amazing," says Chappy. "I don't think that you could've paid a Hollywood crew to stage something better. The fact that he could've been facing any 360 direction and yet he's looking right up into the sun-filled blue sky with that first full scoop away of the shovel is borderline spiritual."
3 News
Avalanche Skier POV Helmet Cam Burial & Rescue in Haines, Alaska from Chappy on Vimeo.