Daniel Illy

The Unforgettable Avalanche Incident

It was an early morning rise at 7, as I woke up and opened my blinds to be

ready for a day of skiing. The roofs of the houses were all full of snow with new 50

centimetres of snow ready to be skied. I quickly got up and had a short breakfast. At

8:30 I was ready to meet my coach and my friend for an amazing day of skiing, with

my avalanche bag. The weather was sunny but at the same time still snowing, I was

feeling very confident for a good day and I knew today I would push it past my limits.

We were doing lots of runs and having the best day of our lives, but there were more

than 10 helicopters and ski patrols helping people. Something felt really weird about

this day but I couldn’t figure out what.

Throughout the day we rode with many cabins and had lots of fun. It started to

get tiring, because we always had to go on and off. The moment came, it was

supposed to be the second last run. As I jumped off the chair lift ready to go to the

station at the bottom; I quickly took a right into an off-piste area which I do very often.

There was no need to install my avalanche bag as I do this often. I look left and right

and see rocks and a few little trees, with heavy snow. The sun was burning on the

face of the mountain and something seemed wrong. I started to ski happily and loud

down the mountain with my friend and my coach. The three of us had never

experienced skiing in such good snow. As my friend took a left to the side of the

mountain, my coach and I continued down the mountain. In a split second, I felt the

whole mountain shaking and suddenly my body flipped over and I flashed downhill.

Suddenly, my coach managed to ski out of the avalanche as he was highly

trained, but my brain had fully shutdown because of the shock I was having. For 10

seconds as I was flying down the mountain I felt like as if I had just been paralyzed.

My body prohibited me to do anything. It was a horrible feeling because I didn’t know

what objects I was hitting. There were rocks around me that I could have hit while

flying down the mountain; which could have highly injured me. An avalanche

happens very fast but when you are actually in it going down you sort of feel as if you

are in slow motion. The only thing you can think about is if you are going to come out

safe and alive. I looked at my friend in the eyes and prayed to come out alive. As I

got to the bottom and things started to slow down, the snow luckily deposited me up;

so I didn’t get buried. My coach and friend couldn’t find me at first because I was half

buried into the snow and they didn’t imagine that it would have thrown me all the way

down. All I felt when things calmed down was tun, tutun, tun, tutun, my

heart was pounding harder and harder and I could barely even talk to my friends

because of the shock I was in. Looking back I realized that now when I go and ski in

the mountains I always know that nature is a million times stronger than us and will

always be. When you do sport that risks your life you need to always think about

safety first, because when that time comes where you're in an avalanche you need

to be protected by professional material. Every time I go skiing now I always, always

look at the conditions and what I need to bring before I go out for a great day of

skiing. I also didn’t only learn how to be safe on the mountain, but I also learnt how

to always appreciate your friends and if you are bored or not happy with your friends,

be happy because I learnt to appreciate others. You will never know what can

happen in life.

To conclude, this incident has helped me become a better person and have

more respect for the mountains in winter, as they can be a fun place to be but at the

same time you have to think twice and be aware of the risks involved in the sport.

Finally, being safe is your number one priority no matter what you are doing.