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July 25, 2009
Avalanche survivor speaks
SYDNEY - AN AUSTRALIAN man pulled unconscious and blue from metres of snow after a deadly avalanche that killed his skiing partner in New Zealand spoke on Saturday of the 'frightening peace' of his brush with death.
John Castran, a multimillionaire from Melbourne, was heli-skiing with his son Angus when they were hit by tonnes of snow on mountains west of Christchurch, on the South Island, late Friday.
'I was skiing down and all of a sudden the whole side of the mountain just let go,' he told the Sydney Morning Herald newspaper.
Buried under almost two metres (six feet) of snow, Castran, 53, said he was still able to move his arms and legs, until a second wave of powder rolled over him and he was completely paralysed.
'You choke with the snow, you can't breathe, you're suffocating, it's like being poured into plaster of Paris,' he said.
'The only thing I could move was my tongue to push the snow away from in front of my mouth. I thought 'I've only got a little bit of air here, I've just got to use all the air very, very carefully,' so I just shut down totally.' It became 'frighteningly peaceful' as the air ran out, Castran said.
His son, 23, managed to dig himself out of snow which had buried him to his waist, and located Castran using a search and rescue beacon which was pinned to his chest.
For 20 minutes he dug into the snow, finally pulling his father free, blue in the face and with his eyes rolled back in his head. He and a guide managed to revive Castran with CPR.
Just moments before the thundering avalanche, Castran said the third man in their skiing party, who died before he could be rescued, turned to him and said 'You don't get much closer to heaven than this.' The three were skiing with two guides in the Ragged Range mountains, near the town of Methven, when they were smothered by about 100 tonnes of soft snow, officials said.
An avalanche warning had been issued earlier in the day for the area because of warm winds, but the guides reportedly said they had taken precautions to ski in an area they thought was safe. -- AFP
July 25, 2009
Avalanche survivor speaks
SYDNEY - AN AUSTRALIAN man pulled unconscious and blue from metres of snow after a deadly avalanche that killed his skiing partner in New Zealand spoke on Saturday of the 'frightening peace' of his brush with death.
John Castran, a multimillionaire from Melbourne, was heli-skiing with his son Angus when they were hit by tonnes of snow on mountains west of Christchurch, on the South Island, late Friday.
'I was skiing down and all of a sudden the whole side of the mountain just let go,' he told the Sydney Morning Herald newspaper.
Buried under almost two metres (six feet) of snow, Castran, 53, said he was still able to move his arms and legs, until a second wave of powder rolled over him and he was completely paralysed.
'You choke with the snow, you can't breathe, you're suffocating, it's like being poured into plaster of Paris,' he said.
'The only thing I could move was my tongue to push the snow away from in front of my mouth. I thought 'I've only got a little bit of air here, I've just got to use all the air very, very carefully,' so I just shut down totally.' It became 'frighteningly peaceful' as the air ran out, Castran said.
His son, 23, managed to dig himself out of snow which had buried him to his waist, and located Castran using a search and rescue beacon which was pinned to his chest.
For 20 minutes he dug into the snow, finally pulling his father free, blue in the face and with his eyes rolled back in his head. He and a guide managed to revive Castran with CPR.
Just moments before the thundering avalanche, Castran said the third man in their skiing party, who died before he could be rescued, turned to him and said 'You don't get much closer to heaven than this.' The three were skiing with two guides in the Ragged Range mountains, near the town of Methven, when they were smothered by about 100 tonnes of soft snow, officials said.
An avalanche warning had been issued earlier in the day for the area because of warm winds, but the guides reportedly said they had taken precautions to ski in an area they thought was safe. -- AFP
