An American teen was found this week after being stranded for 48 hours in the Swiss Alps.
The unidentified 19-year-old was "free ride" skiing back to the Diablerets resort in southern Switzerland when he became trapped in a ravine during a snowstorm.
"The man was found conscious, in a state of hypothermia and exhaustion, and stuck waist-deep in the thick blanket of snow," a statement from police in the canton of Vaud read, describing his survival as "miraculous."
"Free ride" skiing is a freestyle version of the sport in which the skier navigates ungroomed terrain without a planned course.
The teen, a student at Swiss technical school EPFL, said he did not mean to go off course, but became lost in the snow.
"I started following the supports for the chair-lift ... and it started to snow pretty hard, and I just ended up in this ravine," he told Swiss public broadcaster RTS from his hospital bed in Zweisimmen.
He hiked down the ravine and built an embankment to shield himself overnight.
"I tried to keep moving and tried to stay warm," he explained. After sleeping for six hours, he crossed a pond, climbed a bank, and started screaming for help.
"I probably spent four to five hours just sitting there yelling," he recounted.
Luckily, people walking on a nearby road heard his cries.
"Then I knew I was going to get out," he said.
Police said the teen "was relatively well-equipped when it came to clothing, but had no working means of communication and none of the vital material needed when skiing off-piste."
The rescue comes after 11 skiers were killed in avalanches in the Alps over four days.
