--- title: Avalanche Video: This Is What It's Like to Get Caught in One description: A helmet cam video shows what it's like to get buried by snow canonical: https://time.com/3929279/avalanche-survive/ author: Daniel D'Addario article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-06-20T14:03:07.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-10-01T09:08:37.444Z article:section: Science og:title: This Is What It's Like to Get Caught in an Avalanche og:description: A helmet cam video shows what it's like to get buried by snow og:url: https://time.com/3929279/avalanche-survive/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt33638fd8631b2090/698855795f570f18f5b1c179/avalanche.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2704 og:image:height: 1521 og:image:alt: Mountain Landscape avalanche og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: This Is What It's Like to Get Caught in an Avalanche twitter:description: A helmet cam video shows what it's like to get buried by snow twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt33638fd8631b2090/698855795f570f18f5b1c179/avalanche.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # This Is What It's Like to Get Caught in an Avalanche > Sponsored content. 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Future Proof is free at time.com/newsletters. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-futureproof-2026q3/newsletters?i=398cf348-de91-4786-86c9-22174cc4db24&cr=time-nl-futureproof-2026q3-v1) ## Video: How To Survive An Avalanche [Watch (HLS stream): How To Survive An Avalanche](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/2ByLa3N0.m3u8) (3:33)  _Published 2014-02-12. How To Survive An Avalanche_  by [Daniel D'Addario](https://time.com/author/daniel-daddario/)  ## Daniel D'Addario Jun 20, 2015 2:03 PM UTC  by [Daniel D'Addario](https://time.com/author/daniel-daddario/)  ## Daniel D'Addario Jun 20, 2015 2:03 PM UTC It’s every skier’s worst nightmare, but one that can indeed be survived. Kristoffer Carlsson survived an avalanche while skiing in 2011, and brought back helmet-cam video of the snow burying him. Experts say that the best way to survive in Carlsson’s scary situation is to do exactly what he did: Use your hands to create a pocket of air as the snow falls. ## Transcript >> A back country ski outing in Switzerland that is about to turn into a horrifying experience. Christopher Carlson, who was wearing a helmet cam, came very close to documenting his own death. It's an avalanche. He is buried about five feet under the snow, unable to move. Carlson is hoping the skiers he was with find him before he suffocates. And they do. He is a very lucky man. On the average, in the U. S ., 28 people die each year from avalanches, often with hundreds of tons of snow plummeting down the mountain. I ski at Colorado's Copper Mountain with one of the top avalanche experts in the United States. >> How are the conditions? >> Good for skiing. Ethan Green is the director of the Colorado Avalanche Information Center. His State Agency's responsibility in part, to forecast the probability of avalanches. >> This is Mayflower Gulch. >> And he takes me away from the resort and into the back country where most avalanches occur, to learn about the three essentials for back country skiers. >> Beacon, probe and shovel. >> Beacon, probe, shovel. >> That's right. >> Those are the three things you have to have with you. >> That's right. >> The beacon. >> We all put on one of these and turn them on so they are transmitting. They are sending out a signal, and then later in the day, if you get buried in an avalanche I will be able to set mine to receive, pick up your signal and locate you. >> The probe and the shovel. >> Yeah, this is a three- meter probe pole. So what this allows me to do is once I get your general location with the beacon, I can pinpoint you with this probe and then use the shovel to dig down to the tip. >> There is also this fourth item that can keep you above the rampaging snow threatening to bury you, the air bag pack. We dug a three- foot deep hole in the snow to simulate where an avalanche victim might be trapped. Our plan, to send Ethan Green up the mountain with his beacon in receive mode to try to pick up my signal from a hole where I will wait for a rescue. Our producer, Chris [ unk ], puts the finishing touches on my snow cave and I wait in the dark underground. Okay, as I am turning on to receive. No signal right away. But quickly-- >> We got a signal. >> It tells him how close he is getting. >> 16 meters, 13 meters. >> The beacon works like a charm. >> Okay, I'm less than a meter. I have a strike. >> Wow. It was quite unsettling under there. I'm glad your beacon worked. >> Me too. >> Thanks. >> Yes. >> Of course, I was always safe in my controlled environment. In real life a victim sometimes doesn't even have a chance in a huge avalanche. >> It's so dense that you're not going to be able to dig yourself out. Sometimes you can't even expand your lungs to breath. >> But if you are alive after the snow stops moving, having the right equipment can mean the difference between life and death, just like it did for Christopher Carlson. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3929279/avalanche-survive/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3929279/avalanche-survive/"},"headline":"This Is What It's Like to Get Caught in an Avalanche","datePublished":"2015-06-20T14:03:07.000Z","dateModified":"2026-10-01T09:08:37.444Z","description":"A helmet cam video shows what it's like to get buried by snow","url":"https://time.com/3929279/avalanche-survive/","keywords":["Science topic","nature","avalanche","Natural Disasters"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt33638fd8631b2090/698855795f570f18f5b1c179/avalanche.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Daniel D'Addario","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/daniel-daddario/"}],"articleSection":"Science","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt33638fd8631b2090/698855795f570f18f5b1c179/avalanche.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Mountain Landscape avalanche","caption":"Mountain Landscape avalanche","creditText":"Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/science/","name":"Science"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3929279/avalanche-survive/","name":"This Is What It's Like to Get Caught in an Avalanche"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"How To Survive An Avalanche","description":"How To Survive An Avalanche","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/2ByLa3N0/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2014-02-12T18:27:06.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/2ByLa3N0.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/3929279/avalanche-survive/","duration":"PT3M33S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/3929279/avalanche-survive/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```