An American skier is lucky to be alive after being swept off a cliff by an avalanche and onto a Colorado motorway.
After airing off a 15-ft drop the skier was carried over a 25ft cliff, with the fall burying the skier under four feet of snow just south of Silverton near Coal Bank Pass. His riding partner quickly started the search to find his buddy.
Avalanche expert Mike Barney, who was travelling on the road from Durango to Silverton, arrived at the scene while the search was ongoing. Barney works as a heli-ski guide in Alaska and helped find the buried skier, who eventually left the scene uninjured.
