When an avalanche came barrelling down a mountain towards Hannah Hughes in Norway, there was barely time to think, just a moment to brace for impact like a rugby tackle on ice.
By Jean Edwards of RNZ
The 34-year-old New Zealander was about to be caught by an unstoppable wall of snow that would send her tumbling uncontrollably almost 200 metres downhill while backcountry skiing in Trollfjorden.
"I thought if I plant my feet really firmly in my skis and shoulder into the avalanche like a rugby tackle, maybe I'll be able to keep my feet firm on the ground," she said.
"When the first chunks of snow hit me I thought, 'yeah, I've got this', then the main body of the avalanche hit me like a freight train. I got taken off my feet instantly and was under the snow."
Hughes thought she was going to die.
"I couldn't move, I couldn't move my arms, it was so heavy. I could feel my left leg twisting up beside me more and more. There was so much pressure on my leg, I was honestly waiting for a bone to snap," she said.
"With the weight of the snow on top of me it was dark. It was completely black. The snow sets like concrete around you."
Another burst of movement sent her further down the mountain, head downhill, face up.
"As it stopped, there was lightness around my face. I could see that it wasn't pitch black any more. My arm was free enough that I could clear my face and I was above the snow. My whole body up to my chest was buried but my face was free," she said.
Skiers survive in 'absolute miracle'
Hughes was on the mountain with nine other skiers, two SeilNorge guides and a skipper from one of the boats on March 4 as part of a bucket list ski and sail tour around Lofoten.
Pinned by her backpack and stuck in the snow, Hughes eventually managed to sit up to survey the chaotic scene.
While some skiers were above the snow, including her partner, three needed help to free themselves, one person had to be dug out from well over a metre deep, and another was still missing.
"That was when it really hit me, the emotion of it. I remember sitting on the side of the hill watching everyone trying to find this person and silent crying to myself," she said.
In an "absolute miracle", Hughes said the missing skier was soon pulled out unconscious and came to quickly.
"We're so insanely lucky that nobody died, that's a testament to the people who were there that day who rescued them. It really is pure luck that they were buried for 15 to 20 minutes and they're both alive," she said.
Guessing she had a fractured and dislocated left ankle, Hughes hooked her arm under her leg and "bum-slid" down the mountain to safety by a frozen lake.
She said the group did not receive a response to radio calls for help because of the remote location but were relieved to eventually hear a helicopter approaching.
"Luckily one of the skippers on the boats was a retired police officer and managed through all the crackling to catch the word 'avalanche'. He was smart enough to realise something was wrong and had sailed out into the strait and called search and rescue," she said.
Hughes was winched to safety with the rest of the group and flown to hospital on the mainland where she had surgery for her broken ankle and was diagnosed with torn anterior cruciate and medial collateral ligaments.
Back home and on crutches in Whistler, Canada, Hughes began to realise just how close she had come to death.
"It wasn't until we got home that I realised just how much the trauma of the avalanche had shaken me. It took me a while to call it a near-death experience. When I was under the snow, I really thought that was it. The fact that everyone survived is an absolute miracle," she said.
"It hit me all at once, how much I was going to miss out on. I had a bunch of ski plans and hut trips booked for the rest of winter and I had to cancel. I honestly cried for a week straight when I got home, just devastation at how much I was going to miss out on.
"It feels like a bad nightmare that I'd like to wake up from."
Avalanche forecast warns of considerable danger
Months later, Hughes is angry that SeilNorge's guides ventured up the mountain in conditions she believes were unsafe and regrets failing to read the avalanche forecast that warned people to "stay out of all avalanche terrain and run-out zones".
She had been spooked by the deaths of nine people in an avalanche near Lake Tahoe two weeks before the trip but said friends encouraged her to trust the guides.
"The whole reason you pay guides is because they know the snow pack, the terrain and everything better than you," Hughes said.
"To have put our trust in guides and have this be the outcome is pretty devastating. It's not the ticket to safety that I thought it was."
The group planned to ski a line called TM7, tour over another mountain to an alpine sauna, then ski down to the boat in the dark.
Skinning or uphill skiing, Hughes said she raised concerns with a guide about small, loose wet avalanches as they moved through three to four centimetres of rain-soaked storm snow.
She also noticed debris from a size two avalanche in the last 24 hours.
Hughes said she spoke up three times about signs of instability on the mountain, including repeatedly slipping on the skin track and falling over, but her concerns were dismissed.
She was shocked when one of the guides later told her he was only expecting size two avalanches.
"I'm obviously mad that I'm injured and the effect it's going to have on my life for the next couple of years is pretty massive. I don't think we should have been in that situation but if anything can come out of it I really want anybody going on a guided trip to speak up, read the avalanche forecast, don't put endless trust in the guides," she said,
"If you're on a guided trip and you feel like something isn't safe, speak up and hold your ground. Unless you get an explanation that makes you believe that this must be safe, turn around."
'Wrong place at the wrong time' - SeilNorge
In SeilNorge's accident report published in June, chief executive Emil Engebrigtsen said it was the company's first accident of its kind and the business had made changes to help to prevent something similar happening in future.
Engebrigtsen said he was grateful for the skiers' response on the day, resulting in "an accident we can all learn from instead of a tragic day with loss of life".
"It is clear that it was the effort of the group to self-rescue that saved the lives of the two that went missing and buried fully under the snow," he said.
The report said 12 of the 13 people in the group were caught by the avalanche, with some travelling 170 metres.
Ten skiers were partially buried but quickly managed to free themselves, while two skiers were fully buried and had to be found using beacons and probes, the report said.
SeilNorge said the guides checked the forecast many times via Varsom, the Norwegian Avalanche Warning Service.
Varsom forecast danger level three, which meant "considerable avalanche danger".
"It may be very easy to trigger avalanches where windslabs are present. Remote triggering may be possible. Avoid all avalanche terrain, including runout zones," Varsom said.
"Avalanches can get large enough to bury or even kill you (size 2)."
Engebrigtsen said the guides did not see any red flags in the terrain or signs of increasing risk before their ascent.
"Some members in the group voiced concern about the conditions and had questions and some of these were discussed and replied to, and some of the concerns were not considered relevant by the guides," he said.
A participant expressed concerns about a previous avalanche, snowballs rolling from the cliffs and a four-to-six-centimetre layer of wet snow, but none of the group members said they felt unsafe or wanted to turn around.
The guides determined that it was safe to skin up where the avalanche had come down one to two days before because tension in the snowpack was gone, Engebrigtsen said.
He said the size and speed of the natural avalanche that hit the tour group indicated a category three rating.
"Just before arriving at the crown of the old avalanche, the avalanche came from the right with an aerosol cloud and much force," the report said.
"When the group was hit by the avalanche it came with much snow, speed and force, telling us it had already been moving from far above."
SeilNorge said guides Jordi Tosas and Alpo Virtanen were experienced and well-trained and had worked for the company for many seasons, although Virtanen had not been to the area before.
Guides were paid per planned skiing day, regardless of whether clients hit the slopes, so they did not have incentives to go no matter what, Engebrigtsen said.
Both guides had VHF radios but Virtanen lost his in the avalanche so Tosas sent the mayday message to the boats.
They did not have satellite phones or inReach devices, even though this was recommended in SeilNorge guide instructions.
Satellite communication was now mandatory for all guides, SeilNorge said.
"If the group had not managed self rescue as they did, having satellite communication in order to get help faster would possibly and probably have saved lives," Engebrigtsen said.
"Since our ski group ended in an avalanche we did something wrong; the guide's evaluation of the conditions and avalanche risk proved to be incorrect.
"However this we know in hindsight and hindsight is always easy. The question is if the guides could have or should have known better in advance. Our conclusion is that they likely could not.
"That the avalanche was naturally released supports this; they were at the wrong place at the wrong time."
According to the report, the guides said they were generally "ok with the risk of avalanche Cat. 2".
"Our conclusion anyway is that we need to avoid avalanches in general, not only the bigger ones. The margins we had this day, although they were on our side, were not as big as we wanted them to be for our Ski & Sail trips. Going forward the guides shall take less risk," SeilNorge said.
"Skitouring in Norway is increasingly popular, and there will be more avalanches in the mountains, also climate change may also make risk evaluation more complicated. We must do our very best to prevent fatal accidents from occurring, but at the same time we need to be prepared for it and we need to accept that there is a risk."
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