“I Was Gonna Die On My Own:” Snowboarder Saved In Washington After Falling Into ‘Spruce Trap’

A wild video has surfaced online showing a skier rescuing a snowboarder in Washington state who had fallen into a tree well, also known as a ‘spruce trap.’ 

Seattle-based KOMO News said snowboarder Ian Steger was on Mt. Baker when he fell backward into a tree well on the side of the mountain. 

Steger wasn’t able to free himself, and it was at the moment when he thought he would die.

“At that point, I realized I was in a lot of trouble because my friends were below me,” he said.

The snowboarder said he fell into a spruce trap where he couldn’t free himself. 

“I was gonna die on my own mountain in an area I’ve ridden hundreds of times,” Steger said.

Some time passed, and skier Francis Zuber, armed with a GoPro camera attached to his helmet, was skiing down the mountain and found Steger upside down, buried in deep snow. 

Zuber stopped, took off his skies, and began digging to rescue Steger. 

“He’s yelling out asking if I’m okay, if I can hear him. I can’t see. I can’t hear or see anything,” Steger said. “It wasn’t until he got to my goggles and wiped my goggles that I realized how deep I was and how far away he was from me still.”

Steger said there were multiple feet of snow, while the video shows just tree tops. 

Across the West Coast, snowpack this season has been off the charts. With all that snow, avalanche risk has soared. 

On Thursday, Snowbird, a mountain resort just southeast of Salt Lake City, issued a shelter-in-place after an avalanche. 

Ski patrol at the resort searched for hours and said, “No guests or employees were caught in the debris caused by an avalanche.”

First look from above from @KSLChopper5 pilot Ben Tidswell. Looks like majority of slide didn’t make much progress down Chickadee run. Snowbird confirms lift was open at the time of the avalanche. pic.twitter.com/P0efS6KuUi

— Amy Reid (@amyreidreports) April 6, 2023

Last month, a massive avalanche hit Sundance Resort in Utah. 

A group of skiers at Sundance Resort, Utah, witnessed a “massive” avalanche on Mount Timpanogos on Monday, March 27.

A Ski instructor at the resort, Thomas Farley, caught the moment on camera. pic.twitter.com/kvfqEST79h

— The Weather Network (@weathernetwork) March 29, 2023

With temperatures warming up, record snowpack across the country’s western half will mean severe flood risk this spring.