Anyone been ever under an avalanche?

thankfully not, not sure if an abs would have helped in the first videos situation though

not yet haha but if you have the proper equipment and dont panic theres a pretty strong chance you will survive

Top one guy just got buried by his sluff.

And NO thank god.

well, I did get trapped under the snow maker one time...

...you can keep telling yourself that to make you feel better.

you will only survive in an avalanche if

If the guy in the first video had been anything like the guy in "i never want to ski with this guy" thread then the buried guy might not be alive. Its nice to see someone with a sense of urgency.

Please tell me you are joking....

no.and i hope i never wil be

No, but 2 weeks ago I almost got cut in one, lucky I was going fast enough and the slide was small. But I was fucking scared, I was skiing Mc daddy face in Revy, the avy was down in the valley.

Do yourself a favor, take some time tonight, and read this

http://www.nytimes.com/projects/2012/snow-fall/#/?part=tunnel-creek

Your chances in a small storm cycle soft slab are decent as long as there is no terrain trap and you don't get slammed into a tree or pulled off a cliff (which is fairly common since cliff bands increase the likelihood of release). That being said we just had two people die this weekend in Teton County due to soft slab failure at only 8 inches. Both were killed by trauma from collision and not burial (SIP).

If you manage to propagate a deep layer hard slab then you might as well kiss your ass goodbye. Where as a soft slab will often release at the first point of contact, a hard slab is more likely to trigger once your well exposed on the layer. An ABS pack might help keep you on top, but just the forces of the snow in a large slide potentially could kill you.

Sooo... when you say the proper equipment gives you a "pretty good chance of survival" that's assuming you don't die before before the snow comes to a stop. If you do, and your now frozen 3 meters down in snow as hard as concrete, hopefully your partners are competent enough to find and dig you out in 10-15 minutes.

My point being that faith in equipment is faith misplaced. Strong terrain evaluation, local snowpack knowledge, and proper decision making, is more likely to save your ass by keeping you out of the slide in the first place.

Another worthy resource:

Yes, I have and it's a horrendous experience. I was about 12 years old (i'm now 25) I still get nightmares and jumpy in the mountains as a result of rumbling sounds. Honestly I don't really freeride in risk zones any more, I did for years afterwards but in the last 4 or so years i've gradually given up and moved in to the park. One of the few guys that started riding pow and gradually gave it up for park skiing i guess. Maybe one day I'll move back.

"Lucky to survive 3 hour"?! where the hell did they get that number. A avalung may give you to 45 minutes tops if your crazy calm and not too compacted. No way that dood survived 3 hours under '60' feet of snow.

Unburing a friend is one thing, but then what do you do when he/she is unconscious with blie lips in front of you? Be mindful of the skill sets of each of your backcountry partners.

When you take your AST 1 or CAC 1, at least one instructor will have survived a complete burial. My instructor survived a size 2.

Luckly, I havent been caught in one

Never have. Hearing accounts of people talk about being trapped under snow, with the weight of snow pushing in on you from all sides, basically sqeezing the life out of you, is really scary shit.