Francis Zuber was side-country skiing on Mt. Baker in northern Washington when a “flash of color” caught his eye. The color turned out to be the snowboard of a man buried in the snow.
Armed with a GoPro camera, Zuber recorded his actions after seeing the snowboard move and guessing correctly that someone was attached to it. That someone was Ian Steger, who was buried upside down in a tree well of deep snow.
“Right when I went through those trees, all of the snow behind me collapsed and I fell backwards into the hole,” Steger told KING 5 Seattle.
He was unable to move or radio for help and thought he may die. And that’s when Zuber crossed his path and began frantically digging him out, literally saving his life.
Breathing heavily as he dug with his hands, Zuber was almost shocked to find Steger buried so deep. He was even more relieved to hear the trapped man tell him he was okay when he uncovered his face. Zuber reassured Steger, who was wearing a helmet, that he was going to be okay and told him he was going to get his shovel up top to continue digging.
“Holy f*cking sh*t,” he said to himself in the video as he climbed out. “Jesus Christ.”
This man is a HERO‼️ Francis Zuber ‘s headcam shows him rescuing a snowboarder who was buried head down in deep powder at Mt. Baker, Washington! Luckily, he spotted him as he almost passed him. #skiing #snowboarding pic.twitter.com/SyWYFSXcPd
— DeL2000 (@DeL2000) April 1, 2023
“I mean, adrenaline is one heck of a drug,” Zuber would say later.
The incident reportedly took place last month and Zuber and Lee have now become friends.
— Andrew Revkin ✍ ☮️ (@Revkin) April 3, 2023
“I’ve told him how grateful I am that he was there and he had saved my life, how grateful my fiancé is,” Steger told KING 5.
The men can be seen below in a video from the affiliate discussing their chance encounter:
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Tom Tillison grew up in Maryland before moving to Central Florida as a young teen. It is in the Sunshine State that he honed both his passion for politics and his writing skills. Tillison also contributes to BizPac Review.
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