A B.C. snowmobiler is lucky to be alive after he was buried by an avalanche, then rescued by his friends in a dramatic series of events recorded by on a helmet-mounted GoPro camera.
Experienced snowmobiler Curtis Johnson was trapped under the snow for two minutes during the ordeal. A video he posted to YouTube on March 28 captured the entire series of events, including the two-minute period during which the camera is covered in snow and only Johnson's breathing can be heard.
Then, suddenly, a hand scrapes the snow away, and Johnson's snowmobile partners come into view.
Johnson's three friends used shovels and their hands to free him from the avalanche, which happened in the hills near Blue Lake, outside Sicamous, B.C.
Snowmobile enthusiast Steve Wheeler says Johnson is lucky to be alive, and fortunate that he had friends with him at the time of the avalanche.
"This could have been a lot worse if he didn't have experienced people helping him out," Wheeler told CTV Vancouver, speaking at No Limits Motorsports, the business he owns in Squamish.
Wheeler said it's important that anyone venturing into B.C.'s back country go equipped with a shovel, probe and beacon in case they get caught by an avalanche.
"But the most important tool is your brain," he added.
Johnson's helmet camera footage captured images of the avalanche just as it struck. The avalanche appears as a rippling tide of snow moving almost imperceptibly across the hillside, just a few centimetres above the snow pack.
The avalanche is visible at the 1:07 mark of the video posted to YouTube.
"He is extremely lucky," Wheeler said. "I couldn't imagine what was going through his head when he was buried under there.
"That two minutes must have felt like two hours."
