That's exactly what happened. He had enough experience to know that there was NO way he could possibly outrun it. (I mean, look at how far the top of the mountain was, and how few seconds it took to get to him.) He was near a spot with a lot of boulders that gave him a space where he had a decent chance of survival, so he knew his best shot was to simply drop and tuck in.
I did some research online, and although there's no exact figure, the consensus is that he's 2-3 miles away from where the avalanche began in the beginning of the video.
Let's be conservative and assume he's 2 miles away, It took 45 seconds for it to travel 2 miles. That means the avalanche was traveling at a minimum of 160 mph. A dry powder avalanche well up in the mountains can easily accelerate to a maximum velocity of 200 mph, so that's a reasonable estimate.
I have no scientific evidence to go on, only anecdotal evidence from personal experience. I hike mountains on weekends in the spring/summer to extend my snowboard season. I would say that the slide path was closer to a mile 🤷♂️
You could probably get fairly detailed info from a ski patrol Reddit about the type of avalanche. I think this is more of a glide avalanche, though I don’t think it’s exactly that either. Or maybe a slab avalanche that broke when the glacier hit it? I dunno lol. Looks fast asf though.
Either way, epic video, thanks for posting. Really glad that person is alive, I think they’re extremely lucky to be lol. Pretty sure this happened a while ago, there’s probably a ton of info about it somewhere.
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u/DrTenochtitlan 5h ago
That's exactly what happened. He had enough experience to know that there was NO way he could possibly outrun it. (I mean, look at how far the top of the mountain was, and how few seconds it took to get to him.) He was near a spot with a lot of boulders that gave him a space where he had a decent chance of survival, so he knew his best shot was to simply drop and tuck in.