Miracle of Spanish snowboarder in Les 2 Alpes
Wednesday, 09 December 2009
A young Spanish snowboarder spent 44 hours out in the cold of the Les 2 Alpes mountains before being found and rescued late Tuesday morning, according to French media reports. The 18 year old had gone out snowboarding in Les 2 Alpes on Sunday afternoon and quite simply got lost. It seems the bad weather and poor visibility meant he lost his way. His friends gave the alert to the emergency services when he failed to return at the end of the day.

The young snowboarder from Barcelona was finally found late on Tuesday morning when a break in the clouds meant the rescue helicopter could be scrambled to do a surveillance flight over the peaks. After spending 44 hours in the snow, finding the boarder alive has been described as nothing short of a miracle.

Conscious but suffering from severe hypothermia, it seems the un-named snowboarder had indeed got disorientated in the bad weather and, whether he meant to or not, had gone completely off piste at 3200m altitude. He then managed to find his own way over rock bands and avalanches to descend down to 1275m, where he was picked up by the helicopter and taken to Grenoble hospital.

Source : France 3