Moment skier rescues avalanche victim after seeing arm sticking out of snow
- - Moment skier rescues avalanche victim after seeing arm sticking out of snow
Lily ShanagherJanuary 14, 2026 at 6:16 AM
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Credit: Caters via @matteozilla
A man saved the life of a fellow skier caught in an avalanche after spotting his hand sticking out of the snow, footage showed.
Matteo Zilla, a 37-year-old creative director from Italy, was skiing in Engelberg, Switzerland, on Friday when he saw a glove emerging from the powder.
Mr Zilla, who had previously undergone avalanche training, rushed over and began digging to unearth the trapped man with the aid of other skiers.
He told the Daily Mail that there had been between 40cm and 50cm of fresh powder on the day.
Mr Zilla reaches for the trapped man’s hand
He said: “I saw a guy far away who was trying to walk up without skis, so I thought maybe he had lost them and I went down to help search.”
It was then that he turned his head and saw the man sticking out of the snow.
He said: “I immediately went over and removed the snow from his face and mouth, speaking to him to check if he was injured.
“We realised he wasn’t injured and very slowly removed the rest of the snow from his body. We found out he had been skiing down, didn’t see some small bushes and flipped over into the snow.”
The buried skier was not injured, his rescuer said
About 17 people have been killed by avalanches in Europe this month following Storm Goretti.
Officials in the Savoie region of France recorded at least six avalanches in ski areas on Sunday morning.
According to Meteo France, more than a metre of snow fell in the Northern Alps in 48 hours. The forecaster warned on Tuesday that people participating in winter sports could still trigger avalanches.
Eight people died last weekend, including a British skier in the La Plagne resort in the French Alps.
The man, in his 50s, was buried under 8ft of snow while skiing off-piste on Sunday afternoon, prompting an hour-long rescue operation involving more than 50 people.
Another skier was found dead after being buried in an avalanche in Courchevel, also in France, in a separate incident, the resort said in a statement.
In Vallorcine, Haute-Savoie, a 32-year-old off-piste ski patroller was swept away by an avalanche and died after hitting a tree, the local gendarmerie said on Sunday.
Two separate avalanches claimed the lives of three off-piste skiers in the French Alps on Saturday. The pair were buried under 8ft of snow in Val d’Isere after triggering an off-piste avalanche and were found dead by rescuers.
Later on Saturday, a skier died in an avalanche in Areches-Beaufort, with another being admitted to hospital with serious head injuries.
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Source: “AOL Breaking”
