This Video of a Guy Surviving an Avalanche in Whistler Is Going Mega Viral
So this is pretty scary. Tom Oye, an Australian living in B.C., was snowboarding in Whistler’s Chocolate Bowl on Wednesday when a size-two avalanche opened up beneath him. The video shows cracks in the snow forming before everything finally gives way.
Luckily, Oye was wearing an airpack, an inflatable backpack built for avalanches, and was thankfully only buried to his waist, according to a post on Avalanche Canada. The airpack probably saved his life.
Oye posted the video to his Facebook page Wednesday afternoon, and it’s since been viewed almost seven million times.
Airpacks like Oye’s work because larger objects naturally rise to the surface in an avalanche. Airbag systems are triggered by the pull of a ripcord which inflates the balloon system and then drags the wearer to the top.
Size-two avalanches like the one Oye was caught in can run for about 100 metres and are capable of killing or seriously injuring someone. The avalanche scale in Canada runs up to five.
