I was on the
snowest forums reading up on the latest from
Revy, and came across a post from an
avy survivor of his story about a tragic experience he just lived through. The event happened on Revy's
Frisby Ridge on Nov 17
th, 2009. It is pretty traumatic to read, but very informative at the same time as it gives a person a sense of what is needed in order to save lives when the worst case scenario happens with your crew.
Heres the first hand story of an experience of a man who calls himself Ratchet that died and then was
revived on-scene by his crew.
"ET All;
Avy beware!!!
I am not a man who expresses himself well in person, so I want to thank, from the bottom of my heart the two individuals who kept there wits about them (you know who you are Jeff and Randy, and my family is indebted to you) and were able to over come all ODDS to dig me and Riley out of our snow caskets. We were in
frisby at the back in
deadmans creek (maybe not the best decision!). Anyway we dropped in at 300pm
bc thinking this may not be the best decision, got almost to the bottom and realized there was no safe way out the bottom. person x went a bit further and lost his nuts, decided it was best to dig in and try to come out the top. I removed my pack and helmet and proceeded hike down to help turn his sled around. We turned his sled around and as he regained his breath I began to hike back up. he hit the throttle and begin his
minny adventure back up. Randy made it 50 yards and the slope broke, we all thought,"wow get the cameras this is going to be funny", then the slope fractured above him!!! I had literally 2 seconds to break into stride to head for the trees when a wave of snow hit me and covered me. the same wave knocked Riley off my sled had who was trying to see where randy was headed. The wave knocked
riley off my sled and into a tree where my sled pinned his legs against it, he had no idea what hit him. that same wave carried
jeff and his sled 50 yard down the hill.
jeff scrambled to pull his
avy bag cord 3 times but did not deploy. at that point
jeff mad a decision to start scrambling for a tree as he was headed for a cliff. at this point I was
barried with only my hand sticking out and I was frantically trying to clear snow away from my face, then a third slide came and
burried me 3 feet under and it was like being concreted into the ground, I could not even blink the snow was packed so tight around me. from what I was told
jeff was only
haging on by a tree from being washed over the cliff after the third slide came. Randy who was on the sled some how
miraculisly was able to avoid all 3 slides after being tossed and turned on his sled and managed to ride it out ( act of god, or something, call it what you want). all the
avy's settled and
riley was
buring 5 feet under pinned by the sled and I was compacted like a garbage truck 3 feet under. Randy said he began immediate panic mode and began yelling for anyone left uncovered, as he could not see anyone or know where any one ended up. Jeff yelled out from 150 yards below, " I am here". randy ran all the way down to
jeff to check his status, then they turned on there beacons and got a signal 50 yard up and 50 yards down (which would have been over the cliff) they scrambled up and down the slope to determine where the upper signal was coming from and were able to find Riley's signal after roughly 5-10 minutes, took 5 minutes to uncover
rileys face and then a few more minutes to shut his beacon off. Riley was in severe pain as his knees and legs were pinned between a tree and my sled (which has landed him in Vernon emergency for surgery as a result). After getting
riley air and his beacon shut off randy and
jeff began
ther search for number 2, me, just so happens they were standing on me the whole time they were digging out
riley, but because we were so close the most recent
ortovox avy beacons could not differentiate the two. Randy noticed a black spot through the snow (my
belaclava) and frantically began digging. He uncovered my face and found a blue and purple corpse (literally), he said I was not breathing nor responsive. he continued to uncover my chest and
abdomin, yelling "breath
XXXXX, breath
XXXXX!) I
apparantly blinked very slowly and gasped a tiny breath of air. I do not
rember much
untill about 30
miniutes after I was pulled out of the hole. They continued to work on
riley as he was pinned down. after all was said and done we ended up hiking/quadrupling off the hill with the remaining sled. worst scenario ever!!!!
ps.being
barried alive is the worst thing on the planet, your lungs
affixiate and the pain is unbearable, then you begin
haluciating and thinking you can just take a nap and it will all be OK! when you get to that stage think of anything you can to keep you
consious, kids, wife,
girfriend, sled, job, whatever it takes to hang on for an extra 30 seconds, because I assure you it will count. I am sure this blurb does not do the
justis to the trials and tribulations my
barried partner went through, nor our other two friends (who happened to save our lives) went through.
PSS,
avy is out there, ride with caution!!! "
