An experienced snowmobiler described being trapped in a B.C. avalanche as the longest two minutes of his life — and he has video to prove it.
Curtis Johnson was sledding on a slope by Blue Lake, near Sicamous, with a group of friends when snow suddenly crashed down on him. Johnson, who was wearing a camera on his helmet, was knocked off his snowmobile and ended up buried in the slide.
The footage he recorded (watch above), and uploaded to YouTube last week, shows the lens covered by snow. Johnson's friends are heard trying to dig him out, and two minutes later, the camera view is cleared.
"The longest 2 minutes of my life!" wrote Johnson in the YouTube caption.
One of the friends who rescued him, Gord Bushell, told the Revelstoke Review, that they actually uncovered Johnson's face in a matter of seconds, but it took 10 minutes to completely free him.
The experienced group had rescue apparatus with them, but Bushell said the experience was still a "wake-up call to how little of a slope can slide," reported the newspaper.
An average of 11 people die in Canadian avalanches every year, according to Parks Canada. "After the first 30 minutes, the chance of survival for anyone buried by an avalanche drops to 50 per cent, and continues to decrease with every passing minute," said its website.
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