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Sarah Dallof reporting A skier was buried by an avalanche at Snowbasin and saved by his good friend. It's an amazing story of survival.
Geramy Hacking is an expert skier, and he's not sharing his story to impress people. He wants to send the message: Be smart and be prepared on the mountain.
Geramy Hacking and Rob Harris live for the big powder, and Sunday, conditions at Snowbasin were perfect. They set off, outfitted with their usual survival gear, not knowing Rob would soon use it to save Geramy from an avalanche.
It happened in the No Name Peak area at the edge of the resort. It's not an area for average skiers; in fact, it's only double black diamond runs.
Geramy told us, "We were about a quarter of the way down, skiing through the trees, came up across a gully, trying to stay out of it. It gave way and I headed to the bottom."
He threw his arm up and struggled to fill his lungs. "That was the main focus, ‘How come I can't breathe?' and try to figure it out," he says.
Then came the darkness.
Rob says, "As I was coming into the turn where he went off, I was looking down to whether I would go down or turn off. And I looked down, and I saw a little strip of orange that I recognized as a ski pole. No thoughts, just freeze-frame images. Knew he was buried, knew I had to ski right to him."
He did and started digging, uncovering Geramy's head.
"I remember hearing Rob yell my name, ‘Geramy I see you,' something like that. I don't know if I was conscious or not, but something shook me, kinda woke me up like, 'hey it's time to figure out how to breathe,'" Geramy said.
Rob finished digging Geramy out. The two skied down the mountain. They notified ski patrol, which, unable to safely keep up with the rapidly falling snow, says it was already in the process of closing No-Name.
Geramy and Rob place no blame on the resort. They had to ski through special gates at the top warning them of risks, including avalanches.
On Thursday, instead of attending a funeral, the two friends went skiing. Geramy's doing well, though he's having trouble sleeping and has been getting headaches.
He and Rob suggest you always ski with at least one other person and take turns down the hill so you'll be able to see if someone gets into trouble. And always carry a beacon, probe and shovel. Without all those elements, this story could have had a much different ending.
