Brothers Matt and Mike Walsh are lucky to be alive after 17-year-old Matt was buried in a huge avalanche while snowboarding.
“The whole mountain just started popping, and it took me down to the bottom of the hill and I was still on top, and I thought that maybe, maybe I was going to sit on top of the whole thing. But then, the snow from behind hit me and everything went dark,” Matt said.
Mike scrambled to the top of the hill as the slab broke under him.
“And when I got back, I unstrapped my board and looked down and there was still a cloud of snow and I couldn’t see anything, so I started yelling for him and yelling for him.”
Mike ran down the slope to try and find his buried brother as chunks the size of trucks were still falling down the mountain. The snow was about five feet deep.
“I just cried out to god and asked him what to do, and he said, ‘go find your brother.’
Matt was able to put one hand up, and dig a small hole with his fingers.
Their father says mike stepped in to the hole seconds later.
Matt’s first words to his brother there in the snow were “Mike, I’m fine.”