Skier caught in an avalanche carried over 1500 feet

A skier in Wyoming was carried a colossal 1,500 feet by a snow slide after an avalanche was triggered, sustaining serious injuries.

To put that into perspective, the skier, a 29-year-old local woman, travelled almost the height of New York’s Central Park Tower, the second-tallest building in the US.

The avalanche was set off on Sunday afternoon on Prospectors Mountain in Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming.

The female skier was near the top of the Banana Couloir at around 10,800 feet along with four men, the Teton County Search and Rescue and the Grand Teton National Park said in a joint press release.

The group managed to trigger an avalanche, causing them to be caught up in a huge snow slide.

Three men were able to self-arrest, while another was carried 500 feet, and the woman was sent down around 1,500 feet.

Neither of the skiers was fully buried, but the woman sustained serious injuries.

The Grand Teton National Park rangers requested helicopter assistance from the Teton County Search and Rescue to respond to a report of an injured skier.

The search and rescue team flew in a helicopter with three rescue volunteers and a pilot and short-hauled the injured skier, which entails a patient and a rescuer being connected to the belly of a helicopter with a fixed rope for a short flight, the release said.

They flew her to an ambulance, and the rest of the group skied out by themselves.

The officials warned that backcountry users should read the daily avalanche forecast as new snow was still falling on the Tetons.

Last month, another avalanche in Wyoming killed another backcountry skier. The skier had triggered a 50ft-wide avalanche and was buried under the snow for 15 minutes before a companion found him.

The skier, who also had signs of a leg injury, was not found with a pulse and likely died of trauma, the Colorado Avalanche Information Center said.

The Teton SAR team has previously warned that “This is not a normal year, so please be extra conservative in your backcountry decision-making,” after they received multiple reports about avalanches in the first two weeks of the year.