One day during winter break, when much of the OSU community was relaxing at home, Army ROTC cadet Emily Self was frantically digging people out of the snow after an avalanche overtook her party while skiing in Canada.
“You know when you’re caught in a wave in the ocean, tumbling, and you can’t get out of it? That’s what it felt like, but with more pressure,” Self said, recounting the December 2024 experience.
Self, a second-year biochemistry and molecular biology student and avid skier, went skiing with her older brother, a guide and two strangers in the backcountry near Whistler, British Columbia, shortly before Christmas. It was a perfect blue-sky day with a thick blanket of fresh powder — in fact, it was the best snow she’d ever skied in her life.
The group of five started on their third run of the trip, down an area where another group on the mountain had skied earlier that day. The guide went first to clear a path, followed by the other pair of siblings, then Self, with her brother behind her.
And then the mountain came crashing down.
“I don’t remember hearing the avalanche; I don’t remember hearing anything, just being absolutely face-planted into the snow by the snow behind me,” Self said. “I remember feeling like I got hit by a truck.”
Luckily, she had been skiing to the left when the snow hit and managed to avoid the worst of it. After 20 or 30 seconds of chaos, the avalanche spit her out to the side, facing forward, standing upright and buried to her waist. But she was the only one visible above the snow.
At the start of their day, the skiers had received a 45-minute crash course in avalanche safety from their guide, who also equipped them with radio signal transceivers, probes and shovels that they strapped to their backpacks. Thankfully, Self’s gear was still attached to her pack.
“I kind of freak out and dig myself out, and then I’m like, ‘What do I do now?’” she recalled. “I’m looking around and hoping there’s someone else who can take charge, because I don’t want this responsibility.”
Post-avalanche, the snow field looked like massive chunks of broken concrete, but Self could just make out the outline of their guide’s bright red coat as he struggled to dig himself out further down the slope, so she knew he was alive.
She switched her transceiver to “Search” mode so she could pick up the signals of her companions, and started slogging toward the nearest one.
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