Watch as hiker buried under snow manages to wave to rescue helicopter

2023-03-02

Watch as missing hiker buried under snow – with only his arm free – manages to wave to rescue helicopter flying overhead

Man has been skiing in the Lidairdes region when an avalanche hit on February 8
He flagged down the helicopter by waving his free arm out of the deep snow

This is the amazing moment a missing hiker buried under snow managed to wave his free arm and get the attention of a rescue chopper flying overhead.

The footage shows the man waving his only free limb to attract attention, with the rest of his body apart from his head buried in the snow in Switzerland following an avalanche.

Filmed by paramedic Mathieu Lambert, the video shows the young man, who has not been named, waving at the helicopter as it shines a light on the mountain in a desperate attempt to find him in the dark.

In the first zoomed out shot, it could be difficult to spot the man buried in the snow.

However, when the video is zoomed in, a very small arm can be seen waving up at the helicopter, which is hovering above him.

The man has been ski touring in the Lidairdes region when an avalanche hit on February 8. The young man’s family raised the alarm and alerted rescue services when he failed to return on time

At first, it is difficult to spot the man waving his arm up at the helicopter hovering overhead

But when the paramedic who filmed the footage zooms in, you can clearly see the arm peaking out of the snow

The man used his one free limb to flag down the helicopter sent out to find him after the avalanche on February 8

Air Glaviers, a rescue and transport company, received the alert at 5:41pm and dispatched a helicopter with a paramedic and two rescue guides on board.

The team first checked the car-park where the man had started his journey to check that he had not returned to his car. They then began flying over the route he had given his family.

The team eventually located visible tracks and dropped one of the guides to trace them.

Miraculously, they spotted the man waving up at them underneath a large pile of snow blocks, before hoisting him 30 metres up to safety.

Avalanches are fairly common in Switzerland with the Alpine cantons, part of the Swiss Alps, experiencing around 10,000 avalanches annually. Around four-fifths of these occur in February, March and April.

Avalanches kill more than 150 people worldwide every year. They are caused by a variety of incidents including an increased load due to storms, snowfall or erosion, melting ice due to solar radiation and rain, earthquakes, rockfall and icefall.

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