Two shellshocked Australian siblings have shared the horrifying moment they were buried alive under an avalanche at a popular Californian ski resort.
The experienced skiers were caught in the landslide, which left a total of three injured and another person dead.
Sugerman spoke on the moments ahead of the near-death experience, saying she had no idea the avalanche was coming.
“I did not hear it at all,” Sugerman told 9News.
“I could feel everything rolling around underneath me.
“And it just felt heavy, like so heavy. The snow weighed far more than I ever could have imagined.”
Sugerman and Thompson were both submerged in the snow, which left the siblings terrified for their lives.
“It caught up to me, kind of hit me in the back. I was above some cliffs so it kind of boosted me off these cliffs,” Thompson said.
“So I thought I was probably gonna die. Which is pretty crazy to say.”
“My biggest fear was not knowing if there was more snow coming down behind me because I was literally like neck-deep,” Sugerman said.
Callum was able to find Sugerman underneath the snow but Thompson was still nowhere to be found.
“As soon as he was like, ‘Are you okay?’ and I was fine, he was just straight on to ‘Where’s Oliver? We need to find him because I just watched him just get absolutely taken away by that’,” Sugerman said.
Dusting off the snow, the pair went looking for Thompson, who was hundreds of metres down the mountain injured.
Meanwhile, dozens of skiers and snowboarders rushed to help dig people out of the ground while a rescue dog and ski patrol made their way to the scene.
After the Australian couple found Thompson on the side of a hill, the siblings shared their worst fears with the other.
“The first thing he said to me when we skied up to him on the side of the hill, he’s like, ‘I thought you were dead’. And I said, ‘I thought you were dead’,” Sugerman said.
Thompson suffered a dislocated knee and fractures to his tibia and fibula.
He had to be sled down the mountain for medical treatment.
“But I’m alive so I think that’s all that matters,” he said.
A 66-year-old skier, Kenneth Kidd, was killed in the avalanche.
“Our hearts and condolences go out to the victim,” Palisades Tahoe ski resort chief executive Dee Byrne said.
“This is a very sad day for everyone and my team here.”
Authorities have since called off the search and do not believe any others were trapped or buried on the mountain.
