MOUNT WASHINGTON — A snowboarder is lucky to be alive after falling into a ravine while out on a run at Tuckerman Ravine on Mount Washington in New Hampshire.
The harrowing fall was caught on video on Saturday by Austin Hart, who later posted it on Instagram.
It shows a snowboarder approach a cliff, and then tumble down the cliff a few times before falling into a large hole that can be as deep as 60 feet. A few minutes later, the video captures the man snowboarding down the mountain amid cheers from onlookers.
Hart told Boston 25 that he chatted with the man who fell, but didn’t catch his name.
“The boarder told me he drove up from out of state and, his first time at the Ravine. He used an ice axe to chop steps into the ice, climb out, and essentially self rescue,” Hart said in a message to Boston 25. “He was assisted afterward by ski patrol to ensure he wasn’t hurt or hypothermic from the freezing water.”
The acting director of the Mount Washington Avalanche Center tells Boston 25 that those holes can be 50+ feet deep. “The outcome is not often great. People have died in there,” says Jeff Fongemie. “That outcome was a pleasant surprise.”
Fongemie spoke with the snowboarder after a volunteer ski patrol member intercepted him to see if he was ok. “He was not injured. He was completely soaking wet and was very cold,” Fongemie says.
Rescuers put him in a “litter” and a cover similar to a sleeping bag to warm him up and brought him down the mountain to some sun where he swapped into some warm clothes and walked out on his own.
John Weeks, who shared a link to the unbelievable video on Instagram, said he was there when the snowboarder fell.
“Saw this happen up at Tuckerman Ravine yesterday. Hundreds of people in the bowl all went quiet. No sign of life for 5 min so everyone thought he was dead. Then his snowboard came up out of the crevasse so everyone cheers,” Weeks wrote. “ Then nothing else for another 5 min so we think he’s stuck at the bottom of the crevasse and threw the snowboard out to signal he needed help to get out. Hikers start up then 10 min later before they reach him we see his helmet, then head as he climbs up and out soaking wet. More cheering. Life is about choices, eh??!!”
Tuckerman Ravine, which is about a 20-minute drive from North Conway, New Hampshire, offers backcountry skiing and is known for its rocky trail and steep slopes “which allow daredevils to hurtle down the mountain at wildly acute angles,” according to 57hours, a website for outdoor adventure enthusiasts.
Fongemie says that in recent memory two people have died in falls into those holes. “It’s a backcountry area. It’s a treacherous terrain, if we were to close that area, we’d have to close the whole mountain,” he says. “Our job is to give people good info so they don’t get hurt.”
No other significant injuries that day.
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