Featured Image Credit: Instagram/lespowtos
Topics: Health, Instagram, Social Media, Travel, World News, Sport
Poppy Bilderbeck
People are flooding to social media in horror after watching a skier capture the moment he nearly fully fell down a glacier crack on camera.
A member of mountain sports group Les Powtos - 'a happy bunch of friends from Grenoble - was in the French Alps when they came very close having what could've been their very last ski trip.
Skiing on Meije Mountain, the skier suddenly felt the snow give way beneath them.
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The skier - recording their trip with a head camera - can be seen making their way down the mountain in the footage.
Suddenly, they drop and the screen goes blue and white - a blur of snow - as the skier plunges downwards.
The recording then reveals the skier slowly falling down a glacier crevasse, only narrowly avoiding slipping all the way down never to be seen again by managing to find their footing on a ledge and wedging their skis into the ice.
Stranded 15 metres down within the crevasse, the skier eventually managed to escape using an ice axe and crampons, assisted by other members of the group who had ropes and harnesses too.
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People are flocking to social media in shock over the footage.
One Instagram user said: "Some people are made for the extreme lifestyle. Not this person though. Hell no."
"I felt my life ending watching thatv," another said.
A third commented: "New fear unlocked."
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And a fourth resolved: "Omg he’s so lucky to be alive."
If that wasn't enough to put you off ski trips for good, then there's always the story of a snowboarder being buried alive.
Facnis Zuber was on the slopes in Mount Baker, Washington when he spotted something bright yellow poking out of the snow.
Upon closer inspection, Zuber realised it was a snowboard, which was still attached to a pair of feet - a snowboarder having fallen in the heavy snow and now entirely submerged underneath.
Zuber managed to dig the snowboarder out from under the snow - the moment captured on a hair-raising recording.
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Thankfully, the snowboarder - later named as Ian Steger - was alive and able to take a deep breath once his mouth was freed.
Taking to his social media in the weeks following the incident, Zeger warned: "Tree wells are real. If you ski or snowboard, take a moment to watch... Started writing something really long about this experience, but I'll save that for another time and let the video speak for itself.
"All I'll say for now is the mountains don't care how much skill or experience you have. They don't even care if you and your ski partners are doing everything right.
"Take an Avy One course, and get trained on what to do if you find yourself in this situation. I'm thankful I knew just enough to scrape by and perform a successful rescue. And always look out for each other out there."