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Francis Zuber was enjoying the kind of powder skiing you鈥檙e lucky to get once a season. Just out of bounds at the Mt. Baker Ski Area, Zuber was enjoying deep turns when he caught sight of something weird. A snowboard, still attached to a pair of boots, stuck out of the snow next to a partially-buried tree. The skier sprung into action, and this video of his rescue quickly went viral. Listen to Zuber narrate the rescue, with commentary from snow suffocation expert Paul Baugher, in this special video episode of .
Transcript:
[00:00:00] Host: Welcome to this special episode of Out Alive, a podcast dedicated to showcasing extraordinary feats of survival and courage. Our team was recently forwarded a remarkable video. It鈥檚 the kind of thing you hear about, but rarely are these stories recorded. While you鈥檙e watching, you can鈥檛 help but feel an alignment of fate and circumstance, as if the universe conspired to bring the hero to the exact spot at the perfect moment.
During this video, you鈥檙e going to hear from two people. One voice you鈥檒l hear is Francis Zuber, a Washington local who was skiing Mount Baker during a huge powder day. Francis was wearing his GoPro and just out of bounds when he happened to see a snowboard sticking out of the snow. It took him a few minutes to realize the snowboarder was buried alive and unable to get out of the tree well he鈥檇 fallen into. You鈥檒l also hear from Paul Baugher, the global expert in snow immersion suffocation. Since 2001, Bauer has logged every publicized case of snow immersion suffocation or SIS in the United States. After a 30 year career on ski patrol, Paul is now the director of the Northwest Avalanche Institute.
He鈥檚 devoted the last 20 years to educating resort skiers on SIS. So, here鈥檚 Francis narrating his own video from his point of view.听
[00:01:33] Francis Zuber: It was on Friday, March 3rd, and, uh, I mean, it was an incredible day. The snow was extremely deep that day. It was probably the best week of the year, honestly. It snowed, I think, four feet throughout the week.
So the conditions were all time. I, I started going through those trees. They were a little tighter than I would鈥檝e liked. I was going quick, so I just sort do this jump turn kind of thing and fall over on purpose, dump all my speed,听
[00:01:54] Paul Baugher: Anything where the timber is tight. And you get closer to the trees and think, okay, now all the easy snow is skied out that鈥檚 in the middle that鈥檚 easy to get to, now we鈥檙e going into steeper, narrower, closer to the trees to get that last little bit of powder.听
[00:02:12] Francis Zuber: At first glance, I didn鈥檛 realize he was buried initially, but then when I yelled up to him and he didn鈥檛 answer, I knew there was an issue in that I needed to get to him.
Sure. You know, if you鈥檝e been in deep snow like that, it鈥檚 very hard to move uphill. Uh, so that 10 feet or so could have been a, might as well have been a mile. And it was also the scariest part of the whole thing because I didn鈥檛 know how long he鈥檇 been in there for. So I was really scared that, you know, he was gonna die in there.
As I was trying to, struggling to get to him, I step outta my skis cause I realized that sidestepping wasn鈥檛 gonna wor- work at all. And you hear me start cursing cuz I just sunk. I鈥檓 like really pissed at myself in that moment. I was like, oh my God, was that the wrong call? Like, no, I pretty much sunk chest-deep in the snow.
And then I鈥檓 trying to use like my skis as a ladder at one point, and that鈥檚 not really working too well. And I basically just had to clear the snow out in front of me until I could reach for his snowboard and use that for leverage. And then using his snowboard for leverage, get up over him and have a better angle to start, uh, digging him out, uh, with my hands.
[00:03:09] Paul Baugher: Most of these people have had partners, and the partners get below 鈥檈m. The partners never see them. They usually wait at the bottom of the lift. Sometimes they call patrol, sometimes they don鈥檛. But 10, 15 minutes. That鈥檚 your window. And that can even, sometimes that amount of time is not enough.听
[00:03:29] Francis Zuber: If you鈥檙e like in the snow, like he was that far down, you can鈥檛 hear anything.
You can鈥檛 see anything. Your air鈥檚 running out. You鈥檙e in the pitch black. You might as well be in concrete. I have my AVI one certification, just read up and watch rescue stuff whenever I can. But yeah, that was my first, uh, doing something like that and I was hoping and. Expecting actually him to be like sitting up a little bit, almost, not like maybe a little more horizontal than he actually was, but he was pretty much inverted, just about not totally upside down, but pretty close.
So yeah, it took much longer than I expected to, to dig down to him. But that being said, I, I think I still made the right call, digging with my hands first rather than taking the shovel out, just not knowing how long he鈥檇 been there for. I needed to get to his airway first and foremost before doing anything else.
But yeah, I did not expect him to be as far down as he was.听
[00:04:16] Paul Baugher: The guy that did the rescue was just, he did everything right. And I mean, when you watch it, and I, you know, I鈥檝e been in the rescue business for a long time, and that, you know, him huffing and puffing and cursing and using his hands instead of his shovel, he did everything right.
It was so real, you know, he nailed it So that, you know, hero status. Perfect. Good job.听
[00:04:38] Francis Zuber: Yeah. Okay.听
All right. We鈥檙e both gonna catch your breath for a sec. I鈥檓 gonna, I鈥檒l dig you out. Okay. Thank you. There no one else showed up at any point, even after the video ends, you know when I turn the GoPro off, coming back to my senses and I, I shut it off and dig him out the rest of the way.
And then I pull him out and I give him a big hug and I said, I鈥檓 glad you鈥檙e okay. And he鈥檚 like, thank you. Thank you for stopping. You saved the life today. And so we just reconvene and debriefed for a quick second and he radioed down to his buddies and let them know that he was buried, but he鈥檚 okay now that I dug him out.
[00:05:09] Paul Baugher: It was a great lucky example if that guy didn鈥檛 come by at the time that he did, and then his partners had to go back and look for him dead for sure. No question about it. I鈥檓 just positive I can say that.听
[00:05:21] Francis Zuber: My ski partner that I was with, he could see me, you can鈥檛 see him in the video, but he鈥檚, he鈥檚 down on the other side of, of this valley, so he could see me and he thought that I just lost the ski.听
[00:05:32] Paul Baugher: It鈥檚 very much a dark side of powder. You know, we all love powder, myself included, but you know, it has that extra risk that comes with it. It鈥檚 all about keeping a partner in sight that is close enough to be able to render assistance to you if you need it. But 10, 15 minutes, that鈥檚 your window. Do whatever you can to avoid falling forward.
Found yourself unlucky enough to be propelled forward. Heading for the tree. Spread out. Make yourself as big as you can. Do whatever you can to grab branches. Stay out of the inverted position.听
[00:06:05] Francis Zuber: It鈥檚 definitely made us, me and my ski partners reassess the way we, oh my God. We do things in the back country, in the side country, and even inbounds on through the trees and stuff like that.
A shout out to ski patrol and search and rescue crews out there that. Every day. All the time.
(All right. How you doing? You good? I鈥檓 good. Okay, good.)
But they鈥檙e out there like here in a second doing some incredible work. They just don鈥檛 have GoPros on their heads as they do it. They don鈥檛 get nearly enough recognition.
So I just want to shout them out and say that they deserve way more gratitude than they get.听