A B.C. snowmobiler who survived after being buried by an avalanche is opening up about the terrifying ordeal.
Curtis Johnson was snowmobiling in the hills near Blue Lake, outside Sicamous, B.C. last month, when he suddenly became trapped under the snow.
Johnson, who was wearing a helmet-mounted GoPro camera at the time, was buried under the snow for about two minutes, until his friends were able to dig him out.
In the dramatic video footage the camera is completely covered and only the sound of Johnson's tense breathing can be heard.
Johnson said the snow hit him so quickly that he didn't have time to react.
"It happened so fast, basically all I was thinking was I was going to jump in the air to get away from the sled and try to swim in the snow," he told CTV Vancouver. "I don't think I got to jump before it hit me."
Gord Bushell, one of three friends snowmobiling with Johnson that day, said they were lucky to have spotted him after he went under.
"You could see him swimming and then we lost sight of him," he said. "Curtis wasn't that far under the snow, and he was able to get his glove up and we saw him right away and we just started to dig."
The video captures the sound of Johnson's friends frantically digging him out with their hands and shovels.
Johnson said, during those tense moments, he tried his hardest to remain calm.
"I couldn't move anything except my one arm, and basically I just tried to control my breathing. It was quite hard to do that," he said.
Looking back, the father of five said he feels incredibly lucky to have survived.
"(I'm) very fortunate," he said. "I could've been facing down and a lot deeper. It worked out actually perfect," he said.
Since posting the footage at the end of March, Johnson's video has gone viral, getting more than 52,000 views. It was also recently played on Good Morning America.
