Video shows rescue of skier trapped headfirst in snow in French Alps
New footage from a skier's helmet camera captures the dramatic moment he traveled down a slope in the French Alps and came across a woman buried in the snow, with just her legs sticking out.
The 19-year-old woman's head and upper body were buried about 2 feet in the snow. Before the accident Tuesday, she had been skiing in a remote area with a group of pals and then fell.
"She could breathe but there's only so much oxygen under there," Will Field, who was wearing the helmet camera as he skied, said, according to the Sun, which featured the video.
"The snow was really heavy and it could have ended up being a life and death situation. She could have suffocated to death if no one else was there to help."
In his video, Field could be seen immediately removing his gloves and going into his bag to pull out an emergency snow shovel. He then began frantically trying to free her as she kicked her legs.
"Lady, just stay calm. Stay calm," he tells her in the video. "Don't move. Don't move. I'm digging you out."
As he removed the snow to free her, another person arrived and the two worked quickly together to dig her out.
"Cava? Cava?" the rescuer asks her in French as the woman's head appears, checking to see whether she's OK.
The rescued woman could be seen removing her goggles and looking up at Field.
"Merci," the woman says in French, thanking the two for coming to her aid.
Field reportedly said that incidents like these show why it's so important to carry safety equipment while skiing.
"The snow was really heavy and it could have ended up being a life and death situation," he said, according to the Sun. "She could have suffocated to death if no one else was there to help."
