An avalanche trapped a young skier who remained buried for 20 hours 2.3 meters deep under snow but managed to survive, in the Austrian Alps. Wilderness Magazine
"No one survives for more than 60 minutes if their mouth and nose are plugged", explains Montse Bacardí, snow and avalanche technician at the Lauegi Center of the Generau d'Aran Council.
The work, whose first author is Dr. Bernd Wallner, from the Department of Anesthesia and Intensive Care at the Medical University of Innsbruck, highlights that this case shows that search teams should not give up even if several hours have passed since the disappearance of a person trapped by an avalanche. Enric Subirats, a veteran mountain doctor, emphasizes that although the chances of survival are remote, one, two or ten hours after the avalanche occurs, if the injured party has access to an air chamber, has not suffered serious injuries in the fall and It is well protected from the cold and will have some living options to tell the tale.
The authors of the article explain that there is evidence of two other people who even lasted longer under the snow in open spaces than the snowboarder from Austria. The record is held by a woman who spent 43 hours and 45 minutes buried in Italy in 1972. Previously, in 1960, a man spent 25 hours and 30 minutes in Canada. Dr. Iñigo Soteras, a specialist in mountain medicine, points out another very recent case, from 2023, in which a skier remained buried for almost 23 hours in the Italian Alps, at 2,300 meters high and with a temperature of -8ºC, thanks to who had brought his hand to the surface creating an air connection.
Wilderness
The accident happened on a cold day in January 2000, when the protagonist of this story went snowboarding with two friends at a ski resort in the western part of the Austrian Alps. It had been snowing heavily for three days and that day the thermometer read -10ºC at an altitude of 2,000 meters. The avalanche alert level was 4 on a scale of a maximum of 5. The article reports that around 2:45 p.m., the young man and one of his companions descended through an off-piste area with a lot of powder snow. . They didn't come back. A few minutes before six in the afternoon, the friend who was waiting for them downstairs notified the emergency services, who confirmed that the two athletes had been swept away by an avalanche. Night was already falling when the search began, but it was still snowing, visibility was very poor and the risk of avalanche remained at level 4. Given these complicated conditions and the risk they ran, the troops suspended the search at 11:30 p.m. . The operation went out again at 7:30 the next day. It was not until three hours later when they found the two snowboarders buried by the avalanche, the first dead from asphyxiation. The subsequent autopsy determined that he would have died between 15 and 30 minutes after being buried. But the second was still alive. About 20 hours had passed since the avalanche occurred and the snow dragged him more than two meters deep. He was in a lateral position, with his legs bent and showed a temperature of 22.5ºC. The providential air gap through the nearby rock made him have better luck than his companion.
Enric Subirats explains that below 28ºC hypothermia is “very serious”. The rescuers applied chemical heat packs to raise his temperature and he was transported by helicopter to the nearest hospital, where he underwent hemodialysis until his core temperature rose to 30 degrees, at which time he regained consciousness. Likewise, in the following days his heart rate normalized from 35 beats per minute from the first moments to 90. During his admission to the intensive care unit he developed pulmonary edema that was resolved with the administration of oxygen and spontaneous diuresis. He also suffered injuries caused by the cold, although not frostbite, on his lower extremities, the so-called trench foot, which healed after being discharged without leaving any sequelae.
The analysis of this case coincides with the update of the data contained in the Wilderness Medical Society's guide to practices for the management of accidents with people buried under snow due to avalanches. Researchers from an international team assume that it is very difficult to have mortality data from around the world due to the lack of records in many countries, although they estimate that globally there could be between 300 and 500 deaths per year. They do have the information provided by European countries, where there are around 130 fatalities per year. In North America they rise to 36. Reference is also made to tragic events that have gone down in history such as the avalanche unleashed by the 2015 earthquake in Nepal that claimed 22 lives, at the Everest base camp; the avalanche that in 1999 killed 31 people in Galtur, in Austria, or the most recent ones in 2017 in Rigopiano and Marmolada, in 2022, with a balance of 29 and seven dead.
The majority of deaths, specifically 75%, are due to asphyxiation and almost 25% to trauma. Hypothermia is behind a very low percentage of deaths, always according to said publication.
The speed at which the rescue is carried out is decisive. Those who have been engulfed by an avalanche have more than 90% chance of surviving if they are freed within 15 minutes, but if about 30 minutes pass their chances drop to 30%.
