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Buried Alive | Jones Snowboards Team Caught Up In Avalanche Burial And Rescue

A backcountry training day very quickly turned into a real life rescue for the Jones Snowboards team

Just this morning, we published an article on the dangerous avalanche activity we’d been hearing about across the northern hemisphere this season. Of course, this is nothing particularly new. Minutes later a video landed in our inbox, featuring Jones Snowboard team filmer, Greg Weaver, being taken out in an avalanche whilst out on an avalanche safety training day, back in December 2019.

The video (below) captures the moment the slide was triggered and features Jones team ambassadors and riders speaking retrospectively after the event took place. The emotions are clearly still raw during the filming, but the information shared and the message at the heart of this video extremely prescient and of vital importance.

“The risk is always there. No matter how green the lights are”

As Jones team rider Harry Kearney puts it: “The risk is always there. No matter how green the lights are, you’ve still gotta be able to step back and look at it with a clear frame of mind and recognise the danger, no matter how mellow it seems.”

 

From Jones Snowboards:

On December 9th 2019, a crew of Jones team riders headed out into the Lake Tahoe backcountry for a multi-day avalanche rescue course. The goal of the training session was to practice avalanche beacon searches and backcountry rescue skills. On the first morning of the course, the team started the day with a sunrise shred lap. Little did they know, this pre-training shred session would test their rescue skills like never before.

“The team’s previous rescue training paid off as they found him and dug him out in under four minutes”

After six riders had already safely ridden the run, Jones filmer Greg Weaver dropped in and set off a mid-slope avalanche that carried him to the bottom of the face and fully buried him face down, three feet under the snow. Several team riders witnessed the slide and immediately jumped into action to rescue Greg. The team’s previous rescue training paid off as they found him and dug him out in under four minutes.

We’re humbled to share the story of this accident, and the lessons learned from everyone involved, as an educational tool to help you understand how to avoid such a nightmare, and why it’s critical to practice your avalanche rescue skills every season.

(Credit: Jones Snowboards)

 

(Credit: Jones Snowboards)

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