Thirty inches of fresh, powdery snow blanket a pristine mountain top -- perfect ski conditions, or time to run from the slopes?
An episode of this Weather Channel series notes that an avalanche was likely on Feb. 19, 2012, in the Cascade Mountains east of Seattle. But that hadn't deterred 16 "elite" skiers from pursuing their sport on the backcountry Tunnel Creek run.
Sure enough, an avalanche did hit -- measuring 200 feet wide, three feet deep, and leaving three men dead.
A female ski pro credits her survival to a backpack airbag meant to "float" one to the surface during an avalanche, so as to keep one from getting smashed against rocks and trees on the ground.
"All I saw is darkness," she recalled. "Oh, my God. Is this how I'm going to die?" When she realized that she hadn't been killed, she thought, "You're not dead -- do what you can to survive!"
Living through an avalanche is only half the battle -- the wait to be rescued can be fatal. A forecaster notes that only 40 percent of the people who get trapped like this in snow survive for more than 20 to 25 minutes. One might think that you could wriggle or claw yourself out after an avalanche, but snow that has traveled in this manner tends to cement into place like an ice block.
Did the three who got killed not wear airbags? Strangely, this show doesn't say. Wikipedia's entry on the disaster cites blunt-force trauma and asphyxia as their cause of death.
An episode of this Weather Channel series notes that an avalanche was likely on Feb. 19, 2012, in the Cascade Mountains east of Seattle. But that hadn't deterred 16 "elite" skiers from pursuing their sport on the backcountry Tunnel Creek run.
Sure enough, an avalanche did hit -- measuring 200 feet wide, three feet deep, and leaving three men dead.
A female ski pro credits her survival to a backpack airbag meant to "float" one to the surface during an avalanche, so as to keep one from getting smashed against rocks and trees on the ground.
"All I saw is darkness," she recalled. "Oh, my God. Is this how I'm going to die?" When she realized that she hadn't been killed, she thought, "You're not dead -- do what you can to survive!"
Living through an avalanche is only half the battle -- the wait to be rescued can be fatal. A forecaster notes that only 40 percent of the people who get trapped like this in snow survive for more than 20 to 25 minutes. One might think that you could wriggle or claw yourself out after an avalanche, but snow that has traveled in this manner tends to cement into place like an ice block.
Did the three who got killed not wear airbags? Strangely, this show doesn't say. Wikipedia's entry on the disaster cites blunt-force trauma and asphyxia as their cause of death.
