• What Happened: Two Sacramento skiers spotted ski tips barely poking through the snow during a whiteout at Palisades Tahoe and pulled a buried man out alive on February 18.
  • Why It Matters: The man was head down, feet up, completely unable to breathe, with at least four feet of snow on top of him and his arm already limp when they found him.
  • Bottom Line: The rescue happened just one day after the deadliest avalanche in modern California history killed nine people at nearby Castle Peak.

Two Sacramento skiers were cruising through a whiteout at Palisades Tahoe on February 18 when something made them stop. They still cannot fully explain why.

"For whatever reason we stopped and happen to just see tips of the skis in the whiteout and luckily we did," said Carson Schmidt, who captured the entire rescue on his GoPro.

What they found was a man buried head down, feet up, under at least four feet of snow and completely unable to breathe. His arm was already limp. He was running out of time fast.

Schmidt and his friend did not hesitate. They dropped everything and started digging, clearing straight for his face. Twenty-three seconds after they uncovered his airway, the buried man told them he was okay. You can hear him gasp for air the moment the snow comes off his face.

Warning: Video has some language

The man was in total shock. The first thing he asked about was his wife.

Schmidt and his partner work at Land Park Ski and Sports in Sacramento and are seasoned skiers, which likely made the difference between a rescue and a recovery. They knew exactly what to do and they moved fast enough to do it.

The timing of the rescue was chilling in its own right. It happened just one day after the deadliest avalanche in modern California history struck Castle Peak, just 15 miles north of Palisades Tahoe, killing nine backcountry skiers.

Schmidt used the moment to send a message to every skier heading into deep powder this season. "Just want it to be a reminder to ski safe and ski with a buddy. Doesn't have to be an avalanche or a tree well to get buried when it's that deep."

They say they stopped “for whatever reason,” but heaven has a way of placing the right people in the right place at exactly the right moment. And thanks to that divine intervention, a husband was able to return home to his wife.