The shocking moment two snowmobiles were submerged after an avalanche barreled down a Wyoming mountain at 50mph has been captured in heartbreaking first-person video, with one rescued minutes before he was said to have suffocated.
Mason Zak and Jake Dahl were both buried under five feet of snow last Friday while on a day hike with friends in Star Valley.
Seeing that Dahl has fallen from his vehicle, Zak repeatedly shouts “Avi!” to his friend before the snow appears, cascading down the powdery mountainside, in images captured by his camera.
You hear him say “no” under his breath a few times as the snow closes in and tries to escape with the vehicle, seconds before he is plunged into darkness.
‘I saw Jake had fallen off and I wanted to go up and see if he needed help. “When I looked up, I saw the hills breaking above and I started screaming ‘avalanche’ as many times as I could,” Zak said. . “It all happened so quickly.”
The avalanche rushes towards Mason Zak. Zak and Jake Dahl were both buried under five feet of snow while on a day hike with friends in Star Valley
Zak can be heard saying “No” a few times as the snow closes in and tries to escape with the vehicle, seconds before he is plunged into darkness
The friends had decided to ride their snowmobiles downhill some more around 4 p.m. when the shock avalanche struck.
‘I thought I was in the safe area at the bottom. I saw Jake being buried and kept an eye on him so I knew where he was buried if I had to go rescue him,” Zak said.
“As I was watching him, I didn’t even realize it came that fast and it just hit me on my back, threw me off my snowmobile and actually dragged me around a patch of trees.”
Seconds later, Zak was buried under a pile of snow, leaving only the sound of his panicked breathing in a blacked-out video.
Mason, a 23-year-old business owner from Minnesota, was buried for seven minutes before being rescued by a group of passersby who used equipment to locate victims trapped in an avalanche.
He has said he “immediately lost hope” because he could not move under the snow and thought “no one will find us.”
Mason claims that fortunately a rescue crew reached him just in time.
He believes that if they had arrived five minutes later, he would have succumbed to carbon dioxide poisoning.
Meanwhile, Jake, a 25-year-old business owner from Wyoming, was fortunately only buried for about 30 seconds and despite fears that he was “done,” he was able to fight his way out.
Mason said: “It was an ordinary day – we had one of the best days yet in the snow. At the end of the day we decided to do another hill. I had an idea to try something steeper.
“We went to the other hill and didn’t think much about it. I think Jake went up first, I went up second and our other friend third.
‘I ended up face down, palms behind my back. I could move a few fingers and that was about it. I was about two to three meters underground. I was completely buried, nothing of me could be seen. It could have hit me at about 50 miles per hour.”
Mason Zak near his snowmobile after the incident.
Mason said memories flashing before his eyes as he accepted the reality of dying under the snow.
He said: ‘We think I was underwater for about five to seven minutes. I thought Jake and our other friend were both buried, so I immediately lost hope.
‘I thought ‘no one knows where we are’ and ‘no one will find us’. I tried to move a little, but I couldn’t. At that moment, silence took over. It was so dark and quiet.
‘I don’t think I fainted, but I went into some sort of dream. Core memories haunted my mind. I saw my mother, father and brother in front of me.’
He added: “I probably had about five minutes left realistically. I think I had a case of carbon dioxide poisoning when I came out. I suffered quite a headache. I was just amazed that I was saved.
‘I got out, hugged the boys and thanked them for their rescue. I don’t know if they would have found me without the beacons. I feel so lucky to be alive. I now have a whole new respect for the mountain.”
Fellow adrenaline junkie Jake also said the experience has given him newfound gratitude after almost losing his life.
The father-of-two recalled what happened to him and said: ‘It just swallowed me up. It took me about 75 meters down and I started to panic. Luckily it stopped and my left arm was above the snow just enough to dig my face out.
“My face was probably about a foot deep. I could barely breathe. I just screamed as I stuck my face out. I was underwater for about 30 seconds. I thought I was done.
‘I thought about my girlfriend and my children. I was afraid there would be a second wave. This was kind of an eye-opener to what can happen out there. It scared us all and woke everyone up. We’re lucky to be alive.’
The pair have raced together at Star Valley for the past five years.