A skier stumbled upon a snowboarder buried in a tree well of snow in Washington State and was able to dig them out in a remarkable rescue caught on video.
Francis Zuber was skiing at the Mt. Baker Ski Area in the northwest part of the state on March 3rd when he started to catch himself in deep powder.
He’s able to get himself out but then he quickly puts the brakes on before departing when he sees a snowboard sticking out of the deep snow.
Zuber asks: ‘Are you alright?’ and gets no response.
He quickly removes his skis so that he can maneuver over to the tree well – the space around a tree under its branches that does not get the same amount of snow as the surrounding open space – and attempt to rescue the snowboarder.
A skier stumbled upon a snowboarder buried in a tree well of snow in Washington State and was able to dig them out in a remarkable rescue caught on video
Zuber digs with his hands, exclaiming: ‘Hold on, I’m coming!’
He eventually digs out enough of the snowboarder that he can see his head covered in goggles as his arm slowly waves.
‘You alright? Can you hear me?’ he asks, as a little more snow starts to fall and Zuber continues digging.
Eventually he’s able to reach the snowboarder’s face and can hear the buried man take a deep breath.
He says: ‘Thank you,’ to which Zuber replies: ‘Yeah, no problem.’
‘OK, you’re good, I got you,’ Zuber says. ‘Alright we’re both gonna catch our breath for a sec, then I’m gonna help dig you out, OK?’
Zuber starts to build an emergency shovel and dig and is finally able to get the snowboarder out.
He eventually recounted the entire experience in an Instagram post that has already gotten over 2,000 likes.
Francis Zuber was skiing at the Mt. Baker Ski Area in the northwest part of the state on March 3rd when he started to catch himself in deep powder
He’s able to get himself out but then he quickly puts the brakes on before departing when he sees a snowboard sticking out of the deep snow
Zuber quickly removes his skis so that he can maneuver over to the tree well – the space around a tree under its branches that does not get the same amount of snow as the surrounding open space – and attempt to rescue the snowboarder
He eventually digs out enough of the snowboarder that he can see his head covered in goggles as his arm slowly waves
‘Tree wells are real,’ he wrote. ‘If you ski or snowboard, take a moment to watch. This happened a few weeks back at @themtbakerskiarea.’
‘The mountains don’t care how much skill or experience you have. They don’t even care if you and your ski partners are doing everything right,’ Zuber continued.
He also recommended that people take a class that will help them understand what to do in situations like the one he was in.
‘I’m thankful I knew just enough to scrape by and perform a successful rescue,’ Zuber said.
‘And always look out for each other out there.’
Eventually Zuber is able to reach the snowboarder’s face and can hear the buried man take a deep breath
Zuber starts to build an emergency shovel and dig and is finally able to get the snowboarder out
Zuber eventually recounted the entire experience in an Instagram post that has already gotten over 2,000 likes
The snowboarder in peril has not been named or identified.
Zuber did add further detail about the snowboarder a few days ago in the comments of his viral post.
‘One detail I wanted to add that isn’t entirely clear in the video is that the snowboarder who was buried was with a different group,’ he said. ‘All very experienced riders, carrying proper avy gear and walkies.’
‘They took a route through the trees, planning to meet up on the other side, something we’ve all done countless times. It was complete chance I came across him.’
Tree wells are a reason the US Department of Agriculture Forest Service recommends those skiing or snowboarding always go with a partner.
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