Remote Adventurer

This amazing  video posted on You Tube documents the frightening ordeal of skier Chris Cardello who’s helmet cam captured what he surely thought were the final moments of his life.

Fortunately Chris was wearing a Black Diamond AvaLung which saved his life. To quote Black Diamond directly:

The Black Diamond AvaLung allows you to breathe fresh air directly from the snowpack, buying you precious time during a rescue. Rebreathing exhaled air when youre buried causes suffocation because the air becomes oversaturated with carbon dioxide and depleted of oxygen. The AvaLung diverts the exhausted air away from your fresh-air intake zone, considerably extending the time your partners have to conduct a successful recovery.

The footage, shot in Haines Alaska, shows Chris’s own eye view of him dropping in on a steep piste which quickly gives way beneath him. We follow him down the slope as he eventually comes to rest buried under many feet of snow. You can hear the AvaLung working as he struggles for breath whilst rescue crew above work furiously to free him.

When you hear Chris’s deep distress under the snow it’s sobering to think that some of the final moments in this video must go some way towards representing what it’s really like for those avelanche victims who don’t make it.