Although I’m primarily a surfer, when winter time rolls around I am also an avid snowboarder. I grew up shredding the meager world class terrain of the Poconos (actually a lot of my time was spent with fellow contributor Kevin Richards in his cabin near Big Boulder). Eventually, I graduated from the bunny slopes of the East Coast to the back bowls of the Rockies, specifically Colorado. I fell in love with snowboarding backcountry style terrain where you could slash banks of powder and launch off cliffs into oblivion. And while hiking thousands of vertical feet and dropping in off a ten foot cornice far above where the ocean meets the land is a favorite thrill of mine, I’m well aware of the dangers that exist in the backcountry. Especially avalanches. My brother sent me a link to this video that shows a Point-Of-View recording of a skier’s descent down a back bowl that lets loose a monster avalanche and watching it gave me the chills. I have never been trapped in an avalanche (knock on wood), but I have traversed a couple sketchy snow slides that could easily be described as “near misses” and thinking about being trapped under a ton of snow really freaks me out.

Seeing as how the weather is warming up and the snow is melting I thought this video was rather fitting. Watch as the skier gets buried alive for over 5 minutes before eventually being rescued. It’s amazing he was rescued at all. The middle part of the video is the guy buried so it seems like nothing is happening but if you listen carefully you can hear the subtleties that make the video interesting. Check it out and appreciate the power of mother nature.