Wow and the Newsweek story said the guy was back on the slopes a few weeks later. Good for him! I almost drowned on a float trip, and that was the last float trip I've taken. And never done back country skiing either, I stick to the groomed slopes. Gutless wonder I guess!
My son inlaw died in a motorcycle crash in 2019. He owned a nice collection of different motorcycles. Guess who loves to ride them? My 19 yr old grandson (son of my deceased SIL). Those bikes are his pride & joy and I think it's how he copes with the loss of his father. Who are we to deny him that? He's also a hunter, a fisherman, a survivalist camper, a football player, and is currently enrolled in a firefighter/EMS/EMT school.
Condolences. That can indeed happen. It's happened to friends. Riding bikes has risks, and the whole point of riding and training is mitigating risks.
Unfortunately, one doesn't know when a soccer mom in a mini van, dabbing eyeliner while texting and shoving McDonalds to the back seat spawn, crosses a motorcyclist's path.
I want this on my gravestone: "While living, he lived."
"I'm not afraid of dying. I just don't want to be there when it happens."
I will say this: There is no time I feel more alive than when I'm on a moterpsychel doing a two-wheeled ballet through the twisties. It's like a symphony with high-def headphones and I feel "at one" with a machine...
Thanks for posting! This was at my local ski area. I saw this video a few months ago but never heard these details. I would say divine intervention was the order of the day 🙏🏻
Thank you for this article link. The algorithm served me the original video of the digout the day it was posted and I watched it and shared it multiple times. I had recently returned from a vacation with similar types of risk involved and was riveted by the terrifying thoughts of having to be either one of them. I was yelling at him to use his shovel but he successfully rescued him anyway without wounding him.
He gave an interview on Good Morning America, he said he was buried at least 3 minutes but could have been longer. He was thinking about his fiance and how he wanted to tell her he loved her. He thought he was going to die.
In my younger days I use to ski powder like that in Utah. I haven't read the articles but from the way the rescuer was talking, he could have been a ski patrolman looking for him if he had been reported missing. Similar event happened to me when I hit a big tree that literally grew up out of nowhere. My girlfriend reported me missing and it took a minute for the ski patrol to find me at the top of the mountain. Fractured my hip but that didn't stop me from skiing next year. But I was paranoid about trees.
He was better prepared than I was. Recreational skiers don't normally carry a backpack and a shovel in it. But I do miss the days of floating down the mountain side with your skis so deep in powder that you can't even see them.
I was thinking that the snow seemed a little heavy, what once upon a time I would have called “heavy powder” as opposed to “fluffy powder”. In that “once upon a time” I landed in about 6 feet of fluffy powder, totally different scenario, trails hadn’t been groomed and this was in the trees about a dozen feet off the trail; but it took me only a minute to get back up - regular snow skiing...the rescued guy appeared to be really packed in there. Definitely a miracle that the rescuer was prepared and strong, and even saw the guy! Wow.
Yeah, real powder is like skiing on a cloud. You can't even feel your skis making any contact. Makes you feel like you are skiing in slow motion even though you are moving down the mountain quite rapidly.
If only I had ever had the courage to point my skis downhill, I bet I would have more fully appreciated that light powder. I loved what I experienced, though, when the mountain I skied in south-central BC was populated with one t-bar (or something like that, definitely no chair lift), and we skied all day with no lines for about $6/day. Lots of really good times. Lucky me.
I've been IN a tree well as well as helped someone OUT of a tree well. My situations were not as deep... 3-4 ft. This is absolutely terrifying. Just another reason why you NEVER ski alone...
I've backcountry skied, and it is true that this is why you don't go alone. In basic avalanche training you practice so that you can use beacons to find a buried person. You poke down with special poles, or ski poles if needed, to verify where the body is and how deep. This guy started digging with his hands, but there was a shovel which can be quickly assembled in a backpack. The time frame is very short, as the snow packs around the person and cuts off air. If you've ever buried or lost anything in the snow or in the earth, you know that even if you know about where it is, it can be very difficult to find. If the guy had an idea where the body was, he could just poke around quickly.
The guy had avalanche training and was certified, he even worked for the ski resort, and he definitely knew what to do. He knew he had 15 minutes max, and less because he didn’t know how long the guy had been under. It easy to say you would have done it better and faster, and would have known exactly when to pull the shovel, which had to be assembled, but clearly he knew exactly what he was doing and did it well. Clearly he was running on adrenaline and his brain was working as fast as it could to get to the face and his brain didn’t want to stop to unzip, unpack and assemble a shovel until the mouth was free. He did everything perfectly and pulled the shovel at the right time when he had a clear path.
I hope you don't mean to suggest I thought I would do better, because I wouldn't. I have taken a very minor training on using beacons, doing avalanche rescue, aimed at regular skiers. I have a family member who is avalanche trained for professional purposes. I am not. My comment was to give a little more info on equipment and process, as, if you've never encountered this stuff, it could appear the guy was just lucky to dig the fellow out. It was a great video.
Didn't mean to imply that - just a general comment... I noticed a lot of people on his Instagram were asking, why didn't he use the shovel right away. He said he didn't realize the head would be so low. amazing interview:
“Upside down. In the dark and in deeper snow that I’d ever been in my life.”
He could barely move.
During avalanche-survival training, instructors tell students the first thing they must do is create an air pocket around their mouth. Steger remembered that from the basic training he did years ago.
“I was able pull my jacket up over my face,” Steger said. “I had the space to breathe, but there was so much snow on my chest, the act of breathing was very difficult.”
Now he did the only other thing he could do.
“I waited for my friends to come dig me out,” he said. “What we always do. I waited and waited.”
His friends, of course, had no idea where he was. He tried not to think about that.
Then his two-way radio, attached to his backpack, crackled. He could hear a staticky voice.
“My friend said they didn’t see me come out of the trees,” said Steger. “They said they couldn’t see me anywhere.”
Steger couldn’t reach the button on the radio to respond. He knew his friends were down the hill from where he was stuck.
He remembered from training that a person has about 15 minutes of air while buried in the snow. Steger guessed he’d been there more than 5 minutes.
Then came the dark thoughts.
“I’d never see my fianceé again,” he said. “We got engaged in December.”
He thought of Bill Kamphausen, his snowboarding friend who died in late 2022 right here at Mt. Baker Ski Area when he suffocated after falling into a tree well. Someone finally spotted the tip of Bill’s snowboard sticking out of the snow, but it was too late to save him.
After Bill died, Ian's fiance hounded him to get their wills in order.
He remembered seeing the documents that very morning on the kitchen table, not yet signed.
The snowboarder dig out story is definitely real. He was the luckiest guy on the mountain that day.
https://nypost.com/2023/03/31/rescue-of-snowboarder-buried-headfirst-in-snow-caught-on-video/
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11925361/Dramatic-moment-skier-rescues-snowboarder-got-buried-tree-slopes-Washington.html
https://www.newsweek.com/hero-skier-saves-snowboarder-buried-alive-viral-video-1792127
Wow and the Newsweek story said the guy was back on the slopes a few weeks later. Good for him! I almost drowned on a float trip, and that was the last float trip I've taken. And never done back country skiing either, I stick to the groomed slopes. Gutless wonder I guess!
I've crashed a motorcycle but still ride. I suppose snowists have the same passion that fear won't drive away...
My son inlaw died in a motorcycle crash in 2019. He owned a nice collection of different motorcycles. Guess who loves to ride them? My 19 yr old grandson (son of my deceased SIL). Those bikes are his pride & joy and I think it's how he copes with the loss of his father. Who are we to deny him that? He's also a hunter, a fisherman, a survivalist camper, a football player, and is currently enrolled in a firefighter/EMS/EMT school.
Condolences. That can indeed happen. It's happened to friends. Riding bikes has risks, and the whole point of riding and training is mitigating risks.
Unfortunately, one doesn't know when a soccer mom in a mini van, dabbing eyeliner while texting and shoving McDonalds to the back seat spawn, crosses a motorcyclist's path.
I want this on my gravestone: "While living, he lived."
Living in fear of dying is not living at all. Its the reason some knew intuitively lockdowns were nonsense.
So true.
I agree with Woody Allen's take on death:
"I'm not afraid of dying. I just don't want to be there when it happens."
I will say this: There is no time I feel more alive than when I'm on a moterpsychel doing a two-wheeled ballet through the twisties. It's like a symphony with high-def headphones and I feel "at one" with a machine...
I got married and divorced, but still got married again...
🤣
Thoughts to live by
My husband almost died white water rafting and hasn't been since and said he never will go again.
Or smart.
Follow up article: https://www.oregonlive.com/pacific-northwest-news/2023/04/video-of-a-dramatic-mt-baker-rescue-goes-viral-off-camera-an-unexpected-friendship-takes-hold.html
Thanks for posting! This was at my local ski area. I saw this video a few months ago but never heard these details. I would say divine intervention was the order of the day 🙏🏻
Thank you for this article link. The algorithm served me the original video of the digout the day it was posted and I watched it and shared it multiple times. I had recently returned from a vacation with similar types of risk involved and was riveted by the terrifying thoughts of having to be either one of them. I was yelling at him to use his shovel but he successfully rescued him anyway without wounding him.
Awesome story!!!
I wonder how long he was buried. So remarkable!!
I think I remember they said he had about 15 minutes of air total, so less than that.
He gave an interview on Good Morning America, he said he was buried at least 3 minutes but could have been longer. He was thinking about his fiance and how he wanted to tell her he loved her. He thought he was going to die.
In my younger days I use to ski powder like that in Utah. I haven't read the articles but from the way the rescuer was talking, he could have been a ski patrolman looking for him if he had been reported missing. Similar event happened to me when I hit a big tree that literally grew up out of nowhere. My girlfriend reported me missing and it took a minute for the ski patrol to find me at the top of the mountain. Fractured my hip but that didn't stop me from skiing next year. But I was paranoid about trees.
Wasn’t ski patrol, just a normal guy who was in the right place right time.
He was better prepared than I was. Recreational skiers don't normally carry a backpack and a shovel in it. But I do miss the days of floating down the mountain side with your skis so deep in powder that you can't even see them.
I was thinking that the snow seemed a little heavy, what once upon a time I would have called “heavy powder” as opposed to “fluffy powder”. In that “once upon a time” I landed in about 6 feet of fluffy powder, totally different scenario, trails hadn’t been groomed and this was in the trees about a dozen feet off the trail; but it took me only a minute to get back up - regular snow skiing...the rescued guy appeared to be really packed in there. Definitely a miracle that the rescuer was prepared and strong, and even saw the guy! Wow.
Yeah, real powder is like skiing on a cloud. You can't even feel your skis making any contact. Makes you feel like you are skiing in slow motion even though you are moving down the mountain quite rapidly.
If only I had ever had the courage to point my skis downhill, I bet I would have more fully appreciated that light powder. I loved what I experienced, though, when the mountain I skied in south-central BC was populated with one t-bar (or something like that, definitely no chair lift), and we skied all day with no lines for about $6/day. Lots of really good times. Lucky me.
And I'm betting trees are paranoid about YOU, Phil--LOL!!
Yes here too https://www.newsweek.com/hero-skier-saves-snowboarder-buried-alive-viral-video-1792127
I've been IN a tree well as well as helped someone OUT of a tree well. My situations were not as deep... 3-4 ft. This is absolutely terrifying. Just another reason why you NEVER ski alone...
I've backcountry skied, and it is true that this is why you don't go alone. In basic avalanche training you practice so that you can use beacons to find a buried person. You poke down with special poles, or ski poles if needed, to verify where the body is and how deep. This guy started digging with his hands, but there was a shovel which can be quickly assembled in a backpack. The time frame is very short, as the snow packs around the person and cuts off air. If you've ever buried or lost anything in the snow or in the earth, you know that even if you know about where it is, it can be very difficult to find. If the guy had an idea where the body was, he could just poke around quickly.
The guy had avalanche training and was certified, he even worked for the ski resort, and he definitely knew what to do. He knew he had 15 minutes max, and less because he didn’t know how long the guy had been under. It easy to say you would have done it better and faster, and would have known exactly when to pull the shovel, which had to be assembled, but clearly he knew exactly what he was doing and did it well. Clearly he was running on adrenaline and his brain was working as fast as it could to get to the face and his brain didn’t want to stop to unzip, unpack and assemble a shovel until the mouth was free. He did everything perfectly and pulled the shovel at the right time when he had a clear path.
I hope you don't mean to suggest I thought I would do better, because I wouldn't. I have taken a very minor training on using beacons, doing avalanche rescue, aimed at regular skiers. I have a family member who is avalanche trained for professional purposes. I am not. My comment was to give a little more info on equipment and process, as, if you've never encountered this stuff, it could appear the guy was just lucky to dig the fellow out. It was a great video.
Didn't mean to imply that - just a general comment... I noticed a lot of people on his Instagram were asking, why didn't he use the shovel right away. He said he didn't realize the head would be so low. amazing interview:
“Upside down. In the dark and in deeper snow that I’d ever been in my life.”
He could barely move.
During avalanche-survival training, instructors tell students the first thing they must do is create an air pocket around their mouth. Steger remembered that from the basic training he did years ago.
“I was able pull my jacket up over my face,” Steger said. “I had the space to breathe, but there was so much snow on my chest, the act of breathing was very difficult.”
Now he did the only other thing he could do.
“I waited for my friends to come dig me out,” he said. “What we always do. I waited and waited.”
His friends, of course, had no idea where he was. He tried not to think about that.
Then his two-way radio, attached to his backpack, crackled. He could hear a staticky voice.
“My friend said they didn’t see me come out of the trees,” said Steger. “They said they couldn’t see me anywhere.”
Steger couldn’t reach the button on the radio to respond. He knew his friends were down the hill from where he was stuck.
He remembered from training that a person has about 15 minutes of air while buried in the snow. Steger guessed he’d been there more than 5 minutes.
Then came the dark thoughts.
“I’d never see my fianceé again,” he said. “We got engaged in December.”
He thought of Bill Kamphausen, his snowboarding friend who died in late 2022 right here at Mt. Baker Ski Area when he suffocated after falling into a tree well. Someone finally spotted the tip of Bill’s snowboard sticking out of the snow, but it was too late to save him.
After Bill died, Ian's fiance hounded him to get their wills in order.
He remembered seeing the documents that very morning on the kitchen table, not yet signed.
Oh my God! That is just incredible. I'm so glad you listened to all of that and shared it.
@Barney Rubble
“The snowboarder dig out story is definitely real. He was the luckiest guy on the mountain that day.”
That day, or any day!!
With all the “holy sh$t’s, fuks, and heavy breathing.. I knew it was real.
I cant watch it. I am so incredibly claustrophobic that just thinking about it makes me gasp for air. Ugh!