Aussie skier describes harrowing avalanche rescue
One week into a month long ski adventure, four mates hit the slopes with helmet cam rolling. But the exhilaration was short-lived.
Australian skier James Mort, 20, is nowhere to be seen.
Swallowed by an avalanche, he was entombed in snow fearing he'd never get out.
"Once I was buried my thought process was just, ‘alright, you're dead unless they find you quickly’," he told 7News.
Realising their mate was somewhere beneath them, Daniel and Leonard began the frantic search while another friend Andrew went for help.
"My heart was racing. I was breathing slowly but it was really heavy and it was really hard to stay calm,” James said.
As his mates grabbed for their shovels, James moved the only thing he could - his arm.
"I realised that my ski pole was still in the air and I pushed up and I just felt a slight pop as my ski pole broke the surface of the snow,” he said.
It worked.
James’s friends knew where he was. Their next challenge was digging him out.
They kept digging, resorting to bare hands in a desperate bid to save their mate's life.
“The feeling of when we see the tip of his helmet was just the best feeling I've ever had in my life,” Daniel said.
James ‘took a massive breath and a very big sigh’ when he was found.
“I was trying to think of a joke to say when they found me but I couldn't manage anything,” he said.
When Andrew arrived with two Swiss ski patrol officers, James was half way out but not out of trouble.
After an hour of more delicate digging James was finally free.
Watching the video today of January's ordeal, the 20-year-old knows how lucky he is to be alive.
This season, avalanches have killed 75 people, including an Australian in Austria last week.
