An adventure in Diablerets

It has been a few months since my last blog post. Since then I have been quite busy with adventures abroad and studies here in Switzerland and hope to update this blog as soon as possible. Perhaps there is one unexpected adventure that I was reluctant to write about it until requested to a short piece for Theta Tau's Kappa Quarterly. So here is a brief chronicle of my adventure in the alps:

As an engineering student I am used to spending late nights at Grainger library. Usually when I think of staying up until six in the morning on a Sunday I am finishing a project or studying for an exam. This time I stayed up for a different reason.

On the afternoon of Sunday February 1st, 2015 I was skiing at Les Diablerets resort in the Vaudoise alps.

Welcome to Diablerets

That afternoon, I got caught in a blizzard and ended up stuck in a ravine. With one hundred foot banks on either side of me, no cell phone service, and no one within earshot, the only way forward was to follow the ravine down the mountain. I began hiking down the ravine around three in the afternoon. Hiking through ever thickening waist deep snow, I travelled maybe a kilometer by nightfall.

GoPro Image of the snow depth that day.

A few hours into the darkness I ate the last remaining food I had with me, a clementine. Following the small stream that made up the ravine, I was luckily able to drink fresh water. This water would come back to haunt me when I was forced to cross the ravine.

Aided by the moonlight and shielded from the wind by the trees, I hiked through the night. In my mind I began calculating how long it would take me to hike all the way down if I travelled at one kilometer per hour. In the reality of the snow and ski boots I was wearing, I was actually making my way much more slowly. Though I didn’t know it at the time, the temperature was 12 degrees Fahrenheit and I felt that if I stopped moving during the night I might not be able to start again.

By sunrise I was exhausted. I found a spot in the sun between two large trees and fell asleep for about two hours. Waking up to a gust of wind and snow I began making my way further down the ravine. Four times that day I had to cross the ravine. The first was only knee deep. The worst crossing surprised me with water up to my chest that soaked all of my gear, my phone and my passport. Thankfully the liners of my ski boots are engineered with the same construction as neoprene wetsuits thus keeping my feet warm even though they were completely drenched.

All day Monday I continued hiking down the ravine. The only signs of life were two small deer that came to drink from the stream as I had. By midday, I had reached a waterfall that forced me to climb up the left sidewall of the ravine. I used my skis as makeshift ice picks to climb 100 feet up the side. Unfortunately, a hundred meters further along, I slid back down a smaller waterfall back into the heart of the ravine.

That night I took the time to dig a small hole and create a shelter in the snow. I slept with my hands and feet as close to my core as possible, but by the morning my gloves were still frozen on the outside. I began hiking immediately to warm up my body. I hiked for a few more hours until I could see a small road and began to hear dogs barking. For about three hours I called out, only to be heard by dogs. Finally I saw a group of hikers and called out to them first in French and then english. Much to my relief, the hikers were able to call the gendarmes and Rega air rescue service. I cannot thank these people enough for helping me escape the ravine. While hanging under the helicopter was quite cold, being lifted out of that ravine was the most relieved I have ever felt in my life. Upon arrival at the hospital I had spent over 48 hours in the snow and hiked four kilometers down the mountain. I was very fortunate to be visited by my friends the Lanci family, and my own family two days later.

View from the hospital.

Most of the reporters who interviewed me asked me what I was thinking this entire time. While I thought about my family and if they were searching for me, I did not really have the option to think about death. The entire time I was most concerned with using the resources around me to keep warm, keep moving, and stay alive. I faced this challenge much like I would face a problem in engineering. I examined my options, tried to remain calm, and progressed methodically. Sometimes you have to work a little harder, dig a little deeper, and burn the midnight oil, but in the end this focus, determination and problem solving mentality may just save your life.