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rescue

Ian Steger was buried in a tree well when Francis Zuber happened to catch a glimpse of his snowboard.

No matter how long you've skied or snowboarded or how much of an expert you are, there's one nemesis on the mountain that poses an underappreciated threat—the tree well.

People may think the main danger of skiing through trees is the risk of running into one. But falling into a tree well is a less obvious, but still potentially deadly risk due to the possibility of snow immersion suffocation (SIS). Essentially, the area around the base of a tree creates snow conditions that are quite different than those out in the open. Air pockets in the snow combined with water vapor rising from the tree base turns the snow into a quicksand-like texture that is nearly impossible to escape from—the more you struggle, the deeper in you fall. Skiers and snowboarders die every year from SIS due to falling into tree wells and not being found in time.

That could easily have been snowboarder Ian Steger's fate in March 2023 if not for the eagle eye and quick thinking of backcountry skier Francis Zuber.

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Photo by Harshil Gudka on Unsplash

Rescue of an elephant and her calf.

We're normally taught to leave nature alone, especially concerning animals big enough to maul or trample us or generally make surviving an encounter an odds game. But sometimes those wild animals need us, and this intense video of veterinarians in Thailand rescuing an elephant and her calf prove just that. On a rainy day in Thailand, a mama elephant and her baby got stuck in a drain before rescuers could get them out.

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Photo by Lavi Perchik on Unsplash

Neighbor saves boy drowning in pool.

Most people don’t wake up and wonder how they can become a hero that day. In most instances, it’s about being in the right place at the right time and acting on instinct. That’s what happened when Kansas resident Tom Westerhaus was alerted by his 12-year-old daughter, Maddox, that their neighbor’s preschooler had fallen into the pool. The dad, who had been trained as a lifeguard in his youth, went directly to his training, even though it had been years since he took the required classes. He dived in and was able to pull the 4-year-old out of the pool and immediately begin chest compressions. The child had been submerged for more than three minutes.

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Photo by Erik Mclean on Unsplash

Ambulance

Jet packs and jet suits have been part of science fiction and fantasy fiction for a long time but who would’ve thought we could really be living like "The Jetsons" sooner rather than later? Paramedics in the UK have been trying out a jet suit to reach stranded explorers who have been injured in remote areas. The Great North Air Ambulance Service (GNAAS) is testing out the flying jet suits invented by Richard Browning from Gravity Industries. Andy Mawson, the director of operations from GNAAS, hopes to have the technology fully up and running by the summer of 2022.

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