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Skier rescues snowboarder buried upside-down in 6 ft of snow, and the GoPro footage is intense

Talk about being in the right place at the right time.

Francis Zuber/YouTube

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.

Zuber had just begun a backcountry ski run with a buddy on Mount Baker in Washington State when a flash of red caught the corner of his eye. Zuber's GoPro footage shows him stopping and turning to see a colorful snowboard upside-down next to a tree.

“I knew there was somebody attached to it, and obviously they were still alive," Zuber told Vancouver's City News. "I shout out to the guy…he can’t hear me, he’s five and a half to six feet into the snow at that point.” Zuber knew he had to work fast.

As the video shows him struggling to make his way back toward the tree through the deep snow, we can hear him muttering expletives to himself and calling out to the snowboarder. At first, we can't see how Steger is positioned, but as Zuber gets closer and starts digging, it becomes clear that the snowboarder is completely upside-down, with his face buried deep in the snow.

Watch the harrowing GoPro footage Zuber shared on YouTube:

[Warning: This video contains strong language.]

Zuber told the CBC that they estimated Steger had been buried between five and seven minutes, "probably at either a third or just the halfway point of his possible survival time in there," when he found him. Zuber said Steger hadn't been snowboarding alone—he was with a group of three other riders who were carrying safety equipment including shovels, beacons and two-way radios—but as we could see in Zuber's GoPro, getting back up a mountain when you realize someone in your group isn't behind you anymore is no small or quick task.

Steger and Zuber have since become friends since the March 3 rescue and have even gone skiing together on Mount Baker.

Steger told the CBC he just wants to "enjoy being alive." Indeed, after a close-call experience like that, every moment you have would feel like a gift.


This article originally appeared on 4.6.23

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Science

Watch this breathtaking rescue of an elephant and her calf in Thailand

Elephant CPR is amazing to witness.

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.

Elephants are the world's largest land animal, have memories that are uncanny and mourn loss in a very human way. In fact, African elephants have been observed standing vigil as they mourn a herd member that has died. This human-like mourning may be what draws people to the large majestic animal, and that’s a good thing because about 90% of African elephants have been killed in the last century due to the ivory trade. Asian elephants’ numbers are also declining as they lose their habitat to human infrastructure.

Seeing people work together to get the mama elephant breathing and rescue her baby from the drain brings about a whole different level of heartwarming. The veterinarians don’t hesitate to climb up on top of the massive animal and use their team's whole weight to give it CPR. It’s magnificent to see. Until this video, I didn’t even know elephants could receive CPR.

After a few attempts to get the mama’s heart beating, it finally worked. We see the mama and baby snuggling together as the team of humans backs away and watches with joy and exhaustion.

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Joy

Heart-stopping video shows the moment a hero dad saves neighbor's child from drowning

Neighbor of the year

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.

The boy's mother, Alexis Rigney, was living many parents' worst nightmare. The mom-of-two said she was taking care of her 4-month-old when she noticed her door was open and her older child was missing. Rigney reported that her son, Xzavier, has autism and when she ran outside to locate him, she heard sirens. Thanks to her neighbor's heroic instinct, her child began breathing on his own after more than two minutes of chest compressions.

Paramedics arrived shortly after the boy began coughing up water and confirmed that if Westerhaus hadn't jumped in when he did, Xzavier probably wouldn't have survived. The father-daughter duo received Hometown Hero awards from Lawrence-Douglas County Fire Medical for their quick thinking and lifesaving actions. The first responders said that drowning is the leading cause of unintentional death in children and drowning doesn’t always look the way people think.

Thank goodness Maddox recognized something was wrong and alerted her father. Hopefully the pair went out for ice cream to celebrate their new hero status. Surely Xzavier’s mom is storing up on snuggles with her little guy and undoubtedly grateful for her neighbor’s quick acting.

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These paramedics are training with jet packs to quickly reach victims in remote areas

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.

The jet suit has five mini engines: two built into both hand units, and one built into the backpack. It can reach up to 85 mph with a total flight time of 10 minutes. When speaking to BBC, Mawson said, “There's still a lot to work out. Safety is key, and myself and the other paramedics training need to make sure we're capable.” While it would be pretty cool to take a ride with a paramedic wearing a jet suit if your leg were injured, that’s not the purpose. Mawson explained, “What we're really improving here with this equipment, is the time in which we get a highly qualified paramedic to the patient's side, not getting the patient to the hospital.”

It would be a surreal experience for anyone to see their rescue team showing up over the horizon like "Iron Man." It’s hard to believe that this will be a reality for some people in the very near future. Hopefully no one needs paramedics while exploring remote areas of the countryside but if you do, this sure would be an awesome story to tell your friends.

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