A Sacramento skier, Carson Schmidt, rescued a man buried headfirst in deep snow at Palisades Tahoe, rushing to get him oxygen.
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — A Sacramento skier’s video captured the moments he rescued a man buried headfirst in deep snow after a powerful mid-February storm.
After driving seven hours from Sacramento to Palisades Tahoe on Feb. 18, Carson Schmidt said he and his friends were skiing chutes between the KT-22 chairlift and Olympic Lady when he noticed something unusual in the snow.
“I saw ski tips, and I realized someone needed help,” Schmidt said.
He said the storm dumped more than 10 feet of snow in some places. In those conditions, the snow was so soft it behaved “almost like water,” he said, engulfing anyone who falls.
Schmidt said the buried skier was face down, with his skis uphill from his body. The man was more than four feet deep in snow and unable to move or yell. Even when the man tried to breathe, he was inhaling snow, Schmidt said.
“The first thing I thought of was, where is his airway? That’s what you have to find,” he said.
He and his friend started digging toward the man’s face.
“When we first got him out, you just hear this big old gasp for air, and he was like bright blue to the look,” Schmidt said.
It took about eight more minutes of digging to fully get him out and standing. Schmidt said the skier kept asking to see his wife and declined to see ski patrol.
Schmidt, who has been skiing for about 20 years — starting at the age of 2 — said he never saw anything like what happened outside of videos.
“It’s very unique. It’s eye-opening for sure,” he said.
He wants the skiing community to understand what can happen in extreme conditions and to be prepared.
“People who are going to be out skiing in those conditions and that weather and that snow-like stuff, they need to be aware,” he said. “They need to learn how to ski. They need to learn how to rescue. They need to learn all of it.”
While Schmidt found himself rushing into action to help someone else, he doesn’t see himself as a hero.
“I think I see myself about what’s doing right in that situation,” Schmidt said. “If I saw it and chose to look the other way, I probably wouldn’t be able to live with myself because I don’t know if he would have lived.”
Man rescued after being buried in snow while skiing at Palisades Tahoe
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