A quick-thinking snowboarder who pulled the trigger on his inflatable backpack has the device to thank for his life after he was swept away by an avalanche while riding in Whistler, B.C., this week.
Tom Oye’s helmet-cam footage of the incident, posted to his Facebook page on Wednesday, has gone viral with more than 7 million views. The footage starts with Oye realizing he has triggered a slide. “Oh, shit,” he says as he begins to get caught up in the moving mountain of snow. His camera catches the action as he reaches up and pulls a cord to inflate the backpack.
The footage shows Oye being swept down the hillside and viewers can hear the motor pushing air quickly into his bag — which at first sounds like Oye screaming. He comes to a stop several seconds later and — thanks to the bag — is above the mass of snow.
The red bag continues to inflate as Oye breathes heavily and curses some more before another snowboarder arrives to ask if he’s OK — and curses — and then a guy on a snowmobile shows up — and curses. It was a good day to drop some F bombs.
“Not how I planned on starting the morning … stay safe out there kids!” Oye wrote on Facebook.
CBC News reports that the snowmobiler was David Cote, a local guide, who was nearby and witnessed the tail end of the avalanche around 10 a.m. Wednesday.
“You could just see him sort of on the surface,” Cote said. “It’s hard to say exactly if he would’ve been buried without it, but I think he’s quite lucky that he had the avalanche airbag on.”
CBC also said that Oye received the pack as a birthday gift in December, and in another Facebook video, he showed off how the device inflates. The Black Diamond Halo 28 JetForce Backpack is shown on Backcountry.com for $1,099.
