"It was January 25, 2013 and it had been snowing for days in the Aran Valley. The snow cover was more than 4 meters deep. That day we had a warm, cloudless day! The conditions were just fantastic for filming and skiing, but the snow pack was also a bit unstable on steep terrain. We had looked at several areas to film, and finally decided on the least exposed and less steep terrain.
The 3 cameramen, the mountain guide and I were all ready to go when the helicopter arrived. We then took off from the Beret parking lot and flew over the area where I was to make the descent ....
They left me on the ridge where I had to walk a few meters to get to my run. I put on my skis, checked my ABS® backpack and then they signaled me from the helicopter where the cameraman Nil Torremocha was filming.
3, 2, 1 drop, then a few turns, when suddenly I noticed that the snow pack under me was breaking very quickly. I leaned back and went straight down to pass the avalanche, but it was already very, very big and getting bigger every second.
I went straight down for a few feet until the avalanche swallowed me up. I remember I started tomahawking down the mountain without stopping. I was aware that a very large avalanche had caught me, and I just thought that I needed to activate my ABS backpack somehow. I was able to do so quickly and stopped moving shortly thereafter! But just a few seconds later, another part of the avalanche hit me, and I was racing back down the mountain. The most incredible thing was that I was always on top of the avalanche thanks to the two balloons that opened when I released my backpack, and they also protected me from many impacts and possible injuries.... I just hoped it would stop! And it did stop - I was buried up to my chest, but my head was clear and I could breathe perfectly.
The helicopter quickly located me and the guide quickly came to dig me out as I was unable to extricate myself from the avalanche debris on my own.
In the end, it was all just a very scary experience and a very good lesson from which I learned a lot.
