We don't have a lot of details on this close call. Information was provided third hand from Jared at Big Pine who heard about this accident. This is the best account of the accident that we have.

Three snowmobile riders were traveling on Sunday. One decided to hit a short but steep slope. The other two were close behind and were on their way to hit the slope when they saw the avalanche happen and were able to veer away. The lead rider was caught and thrown from his sled. He had just aquired an airbag backpack and was able to deploy it. He came to a stop but was fully buried.

His partners did not have any resuce gear so they were frantic when they didn't see him in the debris. They started searching the debris looking for any clues as to where the buried victim was. They spotted a very small piece of the victims avalanche airbag that was visible in the debris. The victim was buried standing upright slightly leaned forward just below the snow surface. They were able to dig him out, very rattled but unharmed.

FORECASTER COMMENTS: The two riders that did not have any rescue gear earned a valuable lesson about why you should always carry it. It almost cost them their friends life though. Had they not seen the small piece of the victims airbag in the debris, it is likely that the outcome would've been different. There would be no way for them to figure out where the victim was buried.

A note about avalanche airbags. They do work but not 100% of the time. In this case, the avalanche did not run very far. This is one situation where the airbags don't perform great. When a victim with a deployed airbag travels farther down a slope in debris, the greater chance he is going to get shaken to the top of the debris. It's kind of like shaking a bag of potato chips where the big ones end up on top. With short slopes, you don't get that much shaking action before the debris stops. That said, in this case, it does sound like the airbag did help keep the victim more towards the top of the debris.