Talk about right place at the right time.
I can’t imagine the helplessness one feels when buried in the snow.
You’re buried underneath several feet of snow, you can barely breath, and you’re just hoping and praying that somebody comes across you somehow before it’s too late…
Absolute nightmare fuel.
According to FOX News, this wild footage comes out of Mt. Baker in northern Washington, right near the US-Canadian border.
Skier Francis Zuber was making his way down the slopes, when he says a “flash of color” immediately caught his attention. That’s when he realized it was a snowboard sticking out of the ground, and there was somebody buried underneath the snow.
The person buried was Ian Steger, who says the snow somehow collapsed behind him, sending him deep into the snow.
Steger says that he was more than likely buried because the pine trees catch a lot of snow around the branches, but not much at the base, causing it to be less dense.
Zuber compared it to quicksand:
“Where the more you sort of struggle and try to get out of it, the more it’s going to suck you in.”
Steger said he was able to create a small airway, and pull his jacket over his face so he could breath without inhaling snow.
As you can see in Zuber’s GoPro footage, he’s working as hard as he can to get Steger out of the snow, and sure enough, you can finally see his face and the two are able to communicate.
Zuber admitted:
“I mean, adrenaline is one heck of a drug.”
Steger also couldn’t be more thankful for Zuber’s actions:
“I’ve told him how grateful I am that he was there and he had saved my life, how grateful my fiancée is.”
As they say, not all heroes wear capes.
Check it out:
