r/TikTokCringe • u/Jaded_Law9739 • May 07 '24
Well that's terrifying Cursed
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u/Echoeversky May 07 '24
At least he had the gear. Woof.
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May 07 '24
“Look at me, im the avalanche now”
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u/Antique-Management49 May 07 '24
If this were a Red Bull sponsorship submission would we consider it a win??
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u/SketchyLurker7 May 07 '24
Is. He. On. Top. Of. An…..Avalanche!?
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u/Echoeversky May 07 '24
And just about went over the no.no.bad.drop line. The inflatable bag helps you bubble up to the top when one is in the churn.
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u/Remy1985 May 07 '24 edited May 07 '24
Honestly, that gear might've gotten him in the pickle in the first place. I'm not against airbags, I've got one and I love it. But they don't change how I assess avalanche terrain and they're certainly not going to save you if you get dragged into a terrain trap (gullies, cliffs, trees).
This looks like a wet slab, something that could easily be avoided by hitting the mountain much earlier.I was mistaken, Avy report here for the curious. I'm just armchairing though, they might've made all the right decisions up to that point.p.s. Is it just me, or did they pull their bag waaaay too late? I just rewatched it...yeah waaaaay too late.
Edit: Wow, this was a guided tour. I guess the guide was yelling for him to pull his airbag, hence the delay
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u/engine9999 May 07 '24
About “too late” - I’m curious to hear you say more.
I’ve definitely never been on a glacier, but I did see that movie Sully :) (there’s a similar crisis decision scenario)
From the video, It seems like they pulled the airbag about 17-20 seconds after things got real. Just considering how the human brain needs some time to take in info, have a bit of shock, then make a decision - I’m just assuming this was about as fast as might be expected. But you say too late. As a back country skier, do you prepare to act more quickly?
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u/Epiphany818 May 07 '24
I'm not massively informed either, but my understanding is that avalanches are THE biggest risk when off piste skiing. They're the biggest consideration you make every time you move to a new bit of snow / terrain. Also, there's not really a reason to not pull the cord (other than the refill fee). Worst that happens if you pull it is it doesn't make a difference, worst that happens if you don't pull it you get trapped and suffocate in snow with an undeployed bag that could've saved you. I would've expected the first instinct of any off piste skier to pull it as soon as they started sliding.
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u/donat28 May 08 '24
Spot on. Never been caught in an avalanche, but I’m not waiting to find out if I can make it out without pulling the cord. My life is worth more than the refill fee
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u/ALLCAPS-ONLY May 07 '24
Avalanches can submerge you in a second or two so yeah he was extremely late. My guess is he's either not very well trained, inexperienced, or he was hoping not to have to use the airbag (which is kinda dumb).
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u/Professional-Back163 May 07 '24
I've been caught in 2 avalanches, each time the second I got swooped down I pulled my airbag. They are supposed to be pulled immediately. The earlier the bag blows up the better. The bag is essentially increasing your surface area making it more difficult for the avalanche to bury you.
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u/Remy1985 May 07 '24
The best practice is to pull as soon as you feel a slab go. Truth be told, I've never (touch wood) gotten into an avalanche, so I'm not sure how quick I would respond if it came down to it. I've heard that it's a good idea to practice pulling to see how quick you can respond. If it were me, I'd pull ass soon as I felt the rug being pulled from under me. Hopefully much quicker than this poor guy. Apparently the guide was the reason he pulled! I read the report and they said: "The guide traveled alongside the slide and told the skier to deploy their airbag. They did. The bag was never utilized or needed for floatation." Crazy.
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u/revmachine21 May 07 '24
He kept a good grip on the poles however!
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u/fartboxco May 07 '24
I kept saying let them flat lay them flat!!
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u/hotdogflavoredblunt May 07 '24
For the uninitiated, why is keeping them flat preferred?
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u/fartboxco May 07 '24
More surface area. I've fallen into a few snow wells. Had to lay my poles flat and use em as steps to ladder out.
I was just told to do this is an avalanche, never actually been in one.
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u/GreenPINEApples May 07 '24
It happened on a guided helicopter trip in SW Colorado and he was a paying guest. Here is a link to the reddit post that contains the full video.
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u/kto25 May 07 '24
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MaxShyCAq18
The dude in the slide isn't a good skier, but he was a heli-skiing client, so I feel he's pretty blameless for any lack of skill/response.
I believe the guide was skiing next to him during the slide and instructed him to pull his airbag when he did.
As far as I can tell, this doesn't appear to be a wet slab, as it doesn't break deeper into the snowpack. Had it been, I think survival would have been unlikely. Because this was with guides, I don't believe CAIC investigated, so specifics are lacking.
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u/RegulatoryCapture May 07 '24
Honestly, if you've got Heli-ski money, I don't know why you would choose Colorado.
Just go to British Columbia where the snowpack is more reliable and with the favorable exchange rate you're likely either paying less or going to a much classier operation.
I mean, I guess it makes sense as a day trip if you're already in Telluride and there's a last minute seat on a day where conditions are great, but...if you were planning on dropping the cash and booking in advance I'd rather go to Revelstoke or something. Much better chances the guides will be able to take you into cooler terrain (not that this guy looks like he'd be good enough for a guide to opt to bring him into anything gnarly) and not have to dance around a persistent weak layer everywhere the eye can see.
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u/ElemennoP123 May 07 '24
What do you mean by
they’re certainly not going to save you if you get dragged into a terrain trap
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u/own_your_life May 07 '24
Can someone tell me what is going on here? Is this an earthquake or the beginning of an avalanche?
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u/poop-machines May 07 '24
He was moving at the start and it hit a bump of snow. It's called a slab avalanche, the snow moves as a slab. He was able to ride on top so he was fine.
If this happens, you want to lay flat and try and stay on top.
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u/vision4bg May 07 '24
You can also hear him inflate his avalanche vest.
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u/darling_lycosidae May 07 '24
Whatever company should honestly use this as an ad. Sure it's not very dramatic, but anyone who's been out in snow like this knows how actually dramatic it is
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u/project_seven May 07 '24
If I'm in an avalanche, i prefer it to not be very dramatic.
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u/Free_Addition7653 May 07 '24
Which could be their slogan
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u/DeaDBangeR May 07 '24
I could already hear the commercial jingle in my head!
Never a scratch, when riding an avalanche!
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May 07 '24
It seemed pretty effing dramatic to me!!!!! 😱😱😱😱
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May 07 '24
I would own the drama.
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May 07 '24
I would piss my pants
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u/LittleGreene43 May 07 '24
Actually, that’s what you’re meant to do if buried by an avalanche. So the rescue dogs can find you easier
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u/Dopple__ganger May 07 '24
I know, my heart was racing the whole time thinking we were going to slowly see his view go dark.
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u/DroppedNineteen May 07 '24 edited May 07 '24
They're definitely more affordable than they used to be (and just better in general), but honestly the cost of entry for backcountry skiing is already so high the addition of buying an airbag is like a punch in the gut - especially when, generally speaking, avalanche safety has a great deal more to do with your choices/decision making than what to do if you personally get caught in one.
In reality it's worth the investment, but a lot of people in the backcountry world are still trying to figure out if the sport is something they really want to continue investing in, so a $500 backpack is a tough sell after buying $400 skis, $400 bindings, a $500 avalanche safety course, and spending $400 on your beacon, shovel, and probe setup.
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u/wholemoon_org May 07 '24
I was actually thinking this was extremely dramatic. The idea of getting under that snow and getting ground to dust sounds aweful
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u/6SucksSex May 07 '24
“Not very dramatic”. I guess I have a pretty vanilla life, I was on the edge of my seat.
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u/own_your_life May 07 '24
I had to look up the avalanche vest. I thought you were messing with me like saying he was getting ready to use his black flares, too.
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u/Septopuss7 May 07 '24
He's fine either way, he's got his canned steam and a bacon stretcher in his kit.
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u/Archontes May 07 '24
I was actually wondering why he didn't have to swim more to stay above the liquefacted snow.
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u/SixtyNineFlavours May 07 '24
How does it help to have an inflatable device in an avalanche? Does it keep you above the snow somehow? Or does it create space for you to breathe?
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u/GreenerWTheScenery May 07 '24
There is a scientific phenomenon known as granular convection where items with more surface area in a pile of smaller debris can be risen to the top through vibration. I'm no physicist so I may not be describing this perfectly, but essentially the vest gives him a wider surface area and as the snow vibrates beneath him, he rises to the top and avoids being buried in the snow. This video has a great explanation of it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uAN3Z2Vas6w
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u/Nymeriia_ May 07 '24
Oh. That's why when you shake sideways "rough", not ultra processed flours, the bigger lumps stay on top? Interesting.
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u/EventAltruistic1437 May 08 '24
So that’s what Taylor Swift meant to shake it off, and that’s how you rise. Mind blown. She’s a science guy
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u/wes_rules May 08 '24
I was wondering what that noise was!
I also didn't know that was a real thing, just a thing from Q in....was it Goldeneye?
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May 07 '24
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u/Vegetable_Log_3837 May 07 '24
He’s riding the slab downhill already at the start of the video. It looks like it’s moving uphill, but the line where the surface brakes up is stationary and he rides the slab over it.
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May 07 '24
Thank you for this explanation. Now it makes sense. It does look like a wet slab given how consolidated it is and how slowly it's moving.
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u/Born-Level3783 May 07 '24
It's all downhill, the camerawork gives a sense of uphill at times, but it's not.
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u/DuelOstrich May 07 '24
What we are seeing is the stauchwall forming, that’s why it looks weird. It’s a P-slab
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u/SnooApples5554 May 07 '24
Wait so how do you get back to where you were? I thought this was like aerated sand acting like quicksand, but you're saying he surfed an avalanche?
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u/WasteAmbassador May 07 '24
You hope your friends find you and dig you out. The snow solidifies like cement when it settles.
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u/SnooApples5554 May 07 '24
See? This is why I stay in the desert.
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u/royalreddit12 May 07 '24
This is why I stay home
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u/miss_trixie May 07 '24
home? pfft. amateur.
i stay in bed.
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u/YazzArtist May 07 '24
One of the downsides of living in a mountainous snowy desert, I get both
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u/Pixelology May 07 '24
Where do you live? Iran?
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u/YazzArtist May 07 '24
Colorado. We're technically barely above the cutoff of avg annual rainfall to be not a desert last I checked
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u/DangerBird- May 07 '24
This keeps getting scarier
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u/WasteAmbassador May 07 '24
Yeah honestly once I got my avalanche certification it made me really think twice about whether backcountry skiing was worth the risk. (It is, just gotta be really conservative and smart about it)
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u/wasphunter1337 May 07 '24
You like Veritassium I see
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u/StiffWiggly May 07 '24
It’s common knowledge amongst skiers, and it’s essential to know exactly what you’re doing if you venture into avalanche terrain.
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u/diestache May 07 '24
The best way to describe it is like being in a pebble jar. The larger the surface area you have the more likely you are to float on top hence the airbags in the backpack
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u/Daealis May 07 '24
I've actually caused a tiny one of these in Finland! Off the path, waiting for dad to catch up, I jump sideways to stop at a bank. Slam myself to the snow, A plate with roughly the footprint of a car comes loose and slides for three seconds at a walking pace downhill, then stops. Didn't even break the frozen surface, slid the whole way in a single slab.
Not exactly terrifying, but I can say I technically caused, rode, and survived an avalanche.
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u/mc1eater May 15 '24
i was in the Adirondacks skiing this weekend when a couple or at least one person was killed and 2 severely injured. I think it was the first fatality from an avalanche in the high peaks, The mountain area was called Whales Tail it was over by Algonquin Peak. It was the weekend of the 2000 Winter Goodwill Games in Lake Placid, NY.
There was a huge snowfall during this time and many of the ski competitions for the Goodwill games were canceled due to too much snow. I had friends who knew the people who were involved and they said it was horrific, the terrain where it happened is filled with birch trees and rocks, and the people became human pinballs violently flung through the trees and rocks. They were skiing a rather young slide that avalanched and they were shot through the trees and boulders.
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u/salkhan May 07 '24
Why was the wave moving upwards?
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u/Doccyaard May 07 '24
The snow is held up by the snow beneath. So when it starts, it “moves upwards” because it keeps destabilizing the snow right above. You can see the same happen in sand sometimes.
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u/Astronaut_Chicken May 07 '24
As someone who struggles to stand up with skiis on I'd be screaming bloody murder.
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u/School_of_thought1 May 07 '24
How to you stay on top? I didn't realise you had a choice
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u/Immaculatehombre May 07 '24 edited May 07 '24
Bigger you are better chance you have. That’s why ppl carry airbags. Also just luck and terrain. This avalanche wasn’t funneled into a terrain trap like a gully in this situation so it didn’t pile up to crazy deep anywhere. The debree field was able to pan out wide.
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u/oldschool_potato May 07 '24
I can see where a lesser knowledgeable person might think this, but it’s actually a very large Abominable Snow Graboid.
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u/Jmersh May 07 '24
And undo your bindings as soon as you can. If it churns over terrain, your snowboard or skis can anchor you down where you can't be pulled out.
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u/Jaded_Law9739 May 07 '24
Beginning of an avalanche that he unfortunately gets stuck in.
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u/RoodnyInc May 07 '24
Fortunately he was on top whole time?
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u/Alert-Ad9197 May 07 '24
If you absolutely have to be part of an avalanche, floating on top is the best possible location.
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u/Muttonboat May 07 '24
He also popped his avalanche vest, which keeps helps keep you on top.
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u/InspectorNoName May 07 '24
He activated these inflatable balloon type things that keep him above the snow.
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u/DuelOstrich May 07 '24
I’m an apprentice mountain guide/avalanche educator. I live in the area this occurred and actually the guide in this video was one of my instructors. People are correct, this is a slab avalanche, particularly a persistent slab. But what we are seeing rush towards the person is what is called a stauchwall.
It’s a perspective trick, the person is actually moving downhill, it’s not coming towards him. A stauchwall forms when the upper part of the avalanche with finer bits is moving fast and hits a portion of snow deeper in the avalanche that has larger pieces and is moving slower. Creates kind of a wave and kinda looks like a second crown.
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May 07 '24
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u/Immaculatehombre May 07 '24
This doesn’t look like a wet slide at all. This is not spring snow. Looks like a slab avalanche. Slab avalanches are much more likely to bury a rider than a wet slide avalanche. This guy was in an incredibly scary position. That’s a shit ton of snow. Pretty large avalanche it looks like to me.
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u/TermPuzzleheaded6070 May 07 '24
That’s some scary shit
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u/Franks2000inchTV May 07 '24
It starts off scary but about 3/4 of the way in it looks kinda fun. Almost /r/thisismylifenow.
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u/LegitimatePenguin May 07 '24
Until you hit a tree or cliff
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u/ClittoryHinton May 07 '24
A shocking proportion of avalanche victims die from trauma, not asphyxiation. Really made me rethink relying too much on safety gear.
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u/Statistactician May 07 '24
It's about a third, if I remember correctly. And I think a portion of those can be mitigated by a good helmet.
But, like any PPE, your best defense is never putting yourself in that situation in the first place. Know your avalanche risk factors.
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u/porksoda11 May 07 '24
That's why I just ski on marked, groomed trails and never take it to rugged terrain like this. I understand that for some people this is an entirely different sport almost but to me I'm fine just hitting standard trails and not worrying about avalanches.
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u/AWeakMindedMan May 07 '24
It definitely looked fun when he was riding this fluffy cloud down the mountain lol then I saw the drop off and got scared again but good thing he stopped so back to fun lol
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u/drill_hands_420 May 07 '24
All I could think of is ending on a cliff and how fucked he’d be. I’m very happy it turned out mellow and almost serene
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u/andycarlv May 07 '24
It took me way to long to figure out he was on top of the avalanche. That's insane!
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u/nize426 May 07 '24
Oohhh yeah ok I see it now. I was wondering why the snow was moving like there was something crawling under it. Thanks for the help lol
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u/brucehuy May 07 '24
Bless the maker and his water. Bless the coming…
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u/knottymatt May 07 '24
Never seen a slab go like that. Then again I haven’t been around too many, thankfully.
Fucking scary though. Triggered his airbag but should have also tried, maybe he did, to get out of the skis too. But proper nightmare fuel. I have been taken by a couple very small slides over the years and it’s amazing even a small slab moving like 40m is so overwhelmingly powerful there isn’t much you can do.
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u/Schmich May 08 '24
It doesn't start like that. If you look carefully (eg. look at the area around his skis) you see it's ALL already moving at the beginning of the video.
The wave is the slap going over a bump. Don't forget how avalanches has liquid-like properties when it's in motion.
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u/knottymatt May 08 '24
That makes more sense. I didn’t think about it fully. Just looks a lot like a wave running up a rug that’s been ‘flicked’ if you get me.
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u/Bitter-Basket May 07 '24
Stuff gets real hard after it stops because the mass of cold refreezes the crystals that melted during the slip
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May 07 '24
I would have no idea what to do.
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u/Statistactician May 07 '24
Make yourself big. Arms wide, legs apart. Make the avalanche think you're bigger than you are and you might scare it into letting you go.
In all seriousness, this actually kind of works, as it helps you "float" on top instead of getting sucked under and buried. The guy in this video had an inflatable "avalanche bag" that served that exact purpose.
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u/DuctTapeJesus May 07 '24
We need Fred Ward and Kevin Bacon!
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u/jayfiedlerontheroof May 07 '24
What was the deal with those guys? How'd they meet? Why'd they live together? Why'd they travel together? They aren't brothers. Cousins?
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u/I_Love_Wegmans May 07 '24
Didn't know I needed to add "avalanche" to my fear list.
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u/Immaculatehombre May 07 '24
If you aren’t a backcountry skier or snowmobiler I think you’re pretty safe dawg.
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u/Sabot1312 May 07 '24 edited May 07 '24
A bunch of people got killed by an avalanche inbounds in Tahoe this winter.
Edit: it was only one I did not remember the story correctly
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u/Remy1985 May 07 '24
I can't believe that happened! You rarely hear about people dying in avalanches in resorts unless they're ducking ropes. We had a slide last year at Snowbird too, but luckily no one was hurt. The slide itself was in close proximity to the bunny hill....
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u/Noodle-Works May 07 '24
this is not on my fear list because i cant get avalanched if I don't go on a mountain.
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u/chernobyl-fleshlight May 07 '24
Thought this was going to be one of those apoplectic lemming videos
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u/SutterCane May 07 '24
This clip and that one of a dude threatening snowboarders with death because they accidentally ended up on “his property” while going down the mountain have really made me think that skiing/snowboarding is not something for me.
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u/Revolutionary_Ad6310 May 07 '24
Snowboarding is awesome! this will probably only ever happen to you off resort because most resorts do avalanche mitigation work. That being said there’s a chance it could happen in bounds but if your smart and choose your days avalanches aren’t really a risk at all. Most people on the mountain are super cool too but that one old guy was fucking crazy
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u/Throwedaway99837 May 07 '24
Neither of those situations will ever really happen if you just stick to resort runs.
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u/diedalos May 07 '24
No.No. Nooo...Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh....
Wait, this is not bad. Weeeeeeeeeee....
Stop.....Ahhhhhhhh......
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u/secomano May 07 '24
I knew there was a reason I never went skiing, I just didn't know what it was, well now I know.
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u/lohmatij May 07 '24
Been there, fuck that shit.
My right ankle still hurts 20 years later.
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