Video: Snowboarder Tom Oye was snowboarding in Whistler, Canada when he got caught in a pummelling avalanche, and it’s beyond terrifying. In this video we get to see the entire harrowing slide down the mountain. One second he’s getting ready to carve the slopes, and the next he feels the ground crack underneath him and finds himself trapped inside the avalanche.
Thankfully, Oye ended up mostly fine because he was wearing an inflatable avalanche backpack and managed to pull it as he was careening down the mountain — you can see how the inflatable bag buoyed him above the avalanche. It very probably saved his life.
The whole video is scary and makes you feel totally helpless, but at least he’s OK. Plus, the guy coming in at the end of the video on the snowmobile is funny.