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“I found myself spinning … and at one point I was on my belly going face down.”

At some point, he caught his toe in the snow and his body kept spinning — a motion he expects caused his knee injury.

Giddens said he was disoriented, his eyes were blurry and his knee was in a lot of pain when it was all over. He swore a little, then called out his friend’s name, and they were able to regroup.

Two other skiers, who they met as they started the trip, were higher up the couloir and managed to avoid the avalanche.

“One guy, who had climbed further up, was above it and he witnessed some snow falling,” said Giddens. “The other guy who was with us said he had to jump out of the way and managed to get shelter behind an outcrop of rock. He was able to stay behind and avoid getting hit.”

Giddens thought he would be able to crawl out on his own, but the others convinced him it would take way too long.

They activated a SPOT device, which has a satellite GPS locator, that sent an alert to the Lake Louise RCMP, which called in Parks Canada’s mountain safety team.

“We didn’t know what we were responding to,” said Lisa Paulson, a Parks Canada visitor safety specialist who led the rescue.

The RCMP was ready to close the highway and they had EMS and STARS air ambulance on standby.

Within two hours of the device being activated, Paulson’s team was able to locate the men from the helicopter and sling Giddens and his friend to the parking lot at the nearby Mosquito Creek hostel.

Photo by Parks Canada

They were checked over by a medic, but the worst injury was Giddens’ knee, so they decided to drive their own car to the hospital.