Usually a powder day is an absolute dream for skiers and snowboarders.
There is such a thing as too much powder, however, and Ian Deans is using a recent incident at a ski resort in Washington to showcase the risks of deep snow immersion.
Typically associated with tree wells, deep snow immersion happens when a skier or snowboarder falls into deep, uncompacted snow and becomes trapped, leading to rapid suffocation.
On a deep powder day at The Summit at Snowqualmie, Deans witnessed it happen in the middle of a ski hill as several others nearby were completely unaware.
He was filming at the time, which means the whole thing was caught on video.
“(Is) this guy okay?,” Deans, a former professional skier, says as he approaches the helpless man buried in the snow.
He asks again to no response as he frantically begins to dig the man out, finally slowing his pace as he reaches the man’s face and confirms that he’s breathing.
After catching his breath, the unburied skier manages to say "thank you" in a tone that displays a sense of realization that he may have just beat death.
It's fortunate the incident had a positive ending and Deans says he didn’t share the video for attention or accolades.
“This type of suffocation is very real, yet rarely talked about or fully understood,” he wrote on social media. “We see the warnings of immersion, but people don’t realize how easy it can happen. Akin to drowning.”
Deans added: “He is safe, which is the most important thing.”
Although the video was shared as a PSA and not for praise, it’s safe to say that the oucome could have been tragic if a veteran skier like Deans was not in the right place at the right time on that day.
