REVELSTOKE – It was Zach Birnie’s last day in Revelstoke for the season and with a lot of new snow it looked like a beautiful day for some backcountry skiing in the Kokanee Bowl near Revelstoke. With a camera attached to his chest he pushed off for a run, but only seconds later he was swept up in an avalanche. In the video you can hear Birnie scream and swear as he realizes what is happening.
The camera lens is quickly covered in snow. Birnie says he was pushed under by the slide and inhaled quite a bit of powder. But just as quickly as it began, the avalanche comes to a stop as the ground levels out. The whole episode took less than a minute and when it was all over Birnie was shocked to find himself on top of the snow.
“I was very surprised to have not been hurt or buried,” he says.
The skier says he’s learned from the experience.
“Only a few minutes before climbing that last slope some random guy out there told us to watch out, that that might go, that it has gone in the past and he came off very pretentious in the way he told us that and we kind of dismissed him.”
But this experience has taught him to take advice and his own instinct more seriously. Although he didn’t need it in this case, he’s also glad he had avalanche safety equipment with him.
“Trust the people you are with or don’t go with them if you don’t and always have the equipment no matter what. If you are going to go out of bounds, whether it is a three day mission or one run it is worth the money it is worth the time.”
Birnie came away from the experience relatively unscathed. He lost a ski-pole and “tweaked” his shoulder but was otherwise fine.
James Floyer, a public avalanche forecaster with Avalanche Canada has seen the video and says Birnie did a lot of things right including shouting to alert his friend, having avalanche safety equipment on hand and going down the slope one at a time.
However, there was a special public avalanche warning in place that day.
Floyer says that if you are caught in a slide you should try to keep a body part above the snow so others can find you. However, the best protection is to take steps to avoid being hit by an avalanche in the first place.
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