The moment a missing hiker who was buried under snow was found, and it’s nothing short of amazing. Watch the miraculous recovery below:
Paramedic Mathieu Lambert filmed the remarkable footage, which shows the man desperately waving as he tried to get the attention of rescuers.
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The unnamed hiker luckily had one arm free and was able to wave down the rescue chopper as it shined a light on the mountain.
His head was also uncovered - which definitely helped in what could have been a very, very tragic situation.
The young man had been ski-touring in the Lidairdes region of Switzerland when the avalanche hit.
His family alerted rescue services when he didn’t return from his trip on time.
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Rescue and transport company Air Glaciers received the alert at 5:41pm on 8 February and dispatched a helicopter with a paramedic and two rescue guides.
The first place the rescuers checked was the car park where the man started his journey to ensure that he hadn’t returned to his vehicle.
But when they discovered that he was nowhere to be found in the car park, they began flying over the route he had provided his family.
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Thankfully, the rescue team was able to locate the visible tracks he left and dropped one of the guides to trace them.
The team was able to spot the man’s free limb waving at them with only the help of the search light on the helicopter to aid them in their search.
He was extracted from the large pile of snow blocks and hoisted 30 metres up to safety after spending more than six hours buried.
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That must have come as a huge relief to the poor lad.
"Placed on the ground, the guide of the region immediately set in motion to follow the visible traces, while the helicopter resumed its aerial search in the neighbouring corridors," Air Glaciers said in a statement.
"It was there that, going up a corridor, our pilot was able to detect a sign of life in a large pile of blocks of snow, by the simple light of the searchlight in the dark night.
"Still conscious, although buried up to his neck for more than six hours in compact snow, the survivor had only his head and one of his arms out of the casting, allowing him to signal to the helicopter at the time of his passage."
Topics: World News
Gregory Robinson