Skier reveals the terrifying moment she was buried in deadly avalanche at Palisades Tahoe after falling 200 feet down mountain
A woman who escaped with her life after being buried by an avalanche has spoken about the terrifying ordeal after she fell 200 feet down a mountain near Palisades Tahoe in California on Wednesday.
Janet He and Joseph Lu were skiing one of the steepest expert slopes – KT22 – but the pair wanted to be among the first to hit the snow as the slopes had just opened for the season.
Suddenly, the avalanche came out of nowhere and sent Janet tumbling down the mountain, quickly burying her under several feet of compact snow.
“The snow was already moving my feet, taking me with it and sweeping me off the mountain,” Janet said, noting that she could no longer breathe.
‘Am I going to die here?’ she wondered.
Janet He, left, has spoken about her harrowing experience surviving an avalanche at Palisades Tahoe in California on Wednesday after being buried in snow.
Footage captures the dramatic moment rescuers frantically tried to save Janet He, who was trapped under a massive avalanche in Palisades Tahoe
Dozens of people could be seen on the slopes helping to get Janet to safety
Once Janet was freed from the snow, she took a photo with the skier who saved her life
“I couldn’t pull myself up because the snow was so heavy on me,” Janet protested CBS News. ‘I was buried, my face buried in the snow. I was lucky I had the face mask, I had some air in the face mask.
“I (told) myself to calm down, not to panic. When I panic, I use more air,” Janet said.
The avalanche ripped through a section of expert trails at a California ski resort near Lake Tahoe as a severe storm with snow and gusty winds moved into the region, authorities said.
The avalanche occurred around 9:30 a.m. and prompted Palisades Tahoe to close while search crews combed the area under the K-22 lift, which had opened for the first time this season 30 minutes earlier.
It serves ‘black diamond’ slopes for experienced skiers and snowboarders.
Janet’s husband managed to stay on the surface when the avalanche occurred.
“I couldn’t pull myself up because the snow was so heavy on me,” Janet said. ‘I was buried, my face buried in the snow. “I’m lucky I had the face mask, there was some air in the mask.”
Panicked skiers could be seen rushing to find Janet He, who had been swept 200 feet down the mountain and buried under snow.
‘The avalanche happened right behind me – and I don’t see it. I scream and scream. When I realized what could happen, it really struck me. I used my ski pole and frantically hit everything and screamed her name,” Joseph Lu said.
While Janet was still buried deep in the snow, she heard voices upstairs and screamed for help. Her cries were met by another skier who helped her dig out.
“He says, ‘Don’t worry, I’ve got you,’” Janet said. ‘I think this is the best thing I’ve ever heard in my life. I’ve survived it. I could walk. It’s okay, I can walk down.”
Incredibly, the pair escaped without injury and walked off the mountain unscathed. It isn’t until several days later that they realize how close they both came to death.
Still, the experience hasn’t put them off skiing and they plan to hit the slopes again next week.
“The risk is inherent,” Joseph explained. ‘We all know. We just have to respect the mountain, respect the risks associated with it.”
“You realize how precious time and life are,” he added.
The red circle on this map of the resort marks the location of Wednesday morning’s avalanche
66-year-old San Francisco resident Kenneth Kidd was identified as the fatality in Wednesday’s avalanche, which also injured three Australian skiers.
One person suffered a lower leg injury and two others were treated for unspecified injuries and released, officials said.
The death was the first U.S. avalanche fatality of the season, according to the Colorado Avalanche Information Center, which monitors incidents across the country.
Palisades, the site of the 1960 Winter Olympics, is located on the western side of Lake Tahoe, about 40 miles from Reno, Nevada.
The wind at the top of the Palisades resort (2,000 meters) was blowing between 50 and 60 km per hour at the time of the avalanche.
Dan Lavely, 67, of Reno is a season pass holder at Palisades and spent most of his time skiing at Alpine Meadows on Monday, when there was very little snow and the KT-22 lift was closed.
The KT-22 along the side of the lift is where the giant slalom was held during the 1960 Olympics, he said.
“Really good skiers love it because it’s really steep,” he said. ‘I remember skiing there when I was very young. I fell over and slid two-thirds down the mountain. There was no way to stop because it was so steep.”
The resort, which hosted the 1960 Winter Olympics, covers more than 6,000 skiable acres and averages 180 inches of snow per season
The death was the first U.S. avalanche fatality of the season, according to the Colorado Avalanche Information Center, which monitors incidents across the country.
A 2020 avalanche at Alpine Meadows killed one skier and seriously injured another skier, a day after a major storm. Another avalanche at the resort in March 1982 killed seven people, including several employees.
The Placer County Sheriff’s Office said the avalanche spread 450 feet long and 10 feet deep.
‘The avalanche caused one death and one injury. “No further missing persons have been reported,” they said.
Three other skiers suffered non-life-threatening injuries and were released after initial treatment, according to the resort. Among them was a person who suffered a lower leg injury.
Two others became trapped in the slide but were helped by other guests, resort staff said.
Weather forecaster Mark Sponsler, who stayed at the resort, said “several” people were buried by the avalanche, which happened within minutes of the KT-22 slope first opening this winter.
He and his wife arrived at the Palisades Base Area in Olympic Valley on Wednesday morning to ski.
“Apparently the first group of skiers to go up the lift skied down into the bowl below the lift, causing a massive avalanche that spanned the width of the entire bowl,” he wrote on Instagram.