Woman buried alive in avalanche recalls harrowing experience of trying to escape
Ella Scott
Featured Image Credit: YouTube/ABC7 News Bay Area
A skier has recounted her experience of being buried alive in a deadly avalanche.
On Wednesday (January 10), a number of snow fiends headed to Palisades Tahoe, one of North America’s most renowned ski resorts, to try their luck on the slopes.
However, disaster struck within half an hour of the KT-22 chairlift opening.
At around 9:30am at least four resort guests were swept into a horrifying avalanche - one of which was Janet He.
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Luckily, the snow sports enthusiast survived and walked away from the natural disaster with her husband uninjured.
Following the accident, she and her spouse, Joseph Lu, sat down with ABC News to recount the ordeal.
Janet told the news outlet that the barrelling snow had taken her feet out from underneath her and had ‘swept her off the mountain’.
After being knocked over, she was buried in the snow slide and tried not to get anxious over her situation.
"I couldn't pull myself up because the snow was so heavy on top of me”, Janet explained.
“I was buried, my face buried in the snow. I'm lucky I had the face mask, I had some air in the face mask. If I panic, I use more air.”
While Janet was attempting to keep anxiety at bay, Joseph had begun searching for his wife in the disaster's aftermath.
Recounting the moment he realized he may have lost her, he said: “And I don't see her.
“I'm yelling and yelling. When I realised what may happen, it really struck me.
“I was using my ski pole frantically punching everywhere and yelling her name.”
While Joseph searched, Janet heard the voice of another resort guest nearby.
She later claimed it was the ‘best thing’ she’d ever heard in her life, and that he proceeded to pull her out of the snow.
"I survived. I could walk. It's okay, I can walk down,” she said.
Joseph has since issued a warning to fellow ski fans after he and Janet walked away from the Californian resort unscathed.
“The risk is inherent,” he said. “We all know. We just need to respect the mountain, respect the risks associated.”
Despite his and his wife’s close brush with death, they claimed that this wouldn’t be the end of their sports journey.
At the time, they told the news outlet that they would be straight back out on the slopes as soon as Palisades decided to reopen the mountain.
While Janet and Joseph remained unharmed, the avalanche unfortunately claimed the life of a man.
According to the Placer County Sheriff's Department - which covers the Lake Tahoe region - Kenneth Kidd, 66, was named as the only fatality.
Kenneth was a resident of Truckee and Point Reyes and the first US avalanche fatality of the season, according to the Colorado Avalanche Information Center.
Officials claim that the cause of the avalanche is still under investigation.