Current:Home > News"Calm down, don't panic": Woman buried in deadly Palisades avalanche describes her rescue-Angel Dreamer Wealth Society D1 Reviews & Insights
"Calm down, don't panic": Woman buried in deadly Palisades avalanche describes her rescue
View Date:2024-12-23 19:43:40
OLYMPIC VALLEY - A woman who was buried under an avalanche at Palisades Tahoe on Wednesday was saved by a stranger and escaped with no injuries.
Janet He and Joseph Lu were still processing it all Wednesday night. Janet said she was buried in the snow, unable to breathe and asked herself, "Am I going to die here?"
Her husband, Lu, was frantically looking for her when a stranger came to the rescue.
"The avalanche happened just behind me," Lu said in a video he captured just moments after a deadly avalanche rushed through Palisade's KT-22 run.
Janet was nowhere to be found.
"And I don't see her. I'm yelling and yelling. When I realized what may happen, it really struck me," Lu said. "I was using my ski pole frantically punching everywhere and yelling her name."
It was just seconds before that Janet was right behind him when she said she felt the ground slip away.
"The snow is already moving my feet, took me away and swept me off the mountain," Janet said.
Caught in the avalanche, she fell about 200 feet down the mountain and was buried.
RELATED: Skier jumped in and helped search efforts after witnessing deadly Palisades Tahoe avalanche
"I couldn't pull myself up because the snow was so heavy on top of me," Janet said. "I was buried, my face buried in the snow. I'm lucky I had the face mask, I had some air in the face mask."
At that moment, she knew she could only be still.
"I tell myself to calm down, don't panic," Janet said. "If I panic, I use more air."
Stuck in the snow, she heard a voice from above – another skier at her rescue.
"He says, 'No worries, I got you,'" Janet said. "I think that's the best thing I ever heard in my life."
Janet snapped a photo with the man who saved her life, processing it all in real time.
"I survived. I could walk. It's okay, I can walk down," Janet said.
The couple walked down the mountain with no injuries, realizing then, and now, how lucky they are to be alive.
"The risk is inherent," Lu said. "We all know. We just need to respect the mountain, respect the risks associated."
The avalanche claimed the life of a man from the Point Reyes and Truckee areas.
Another person was injured.
This couple holding each other closer now than ever.
"You realize time and life, how treasured it is," Lu said.
Lu and Janet were admittedly nervous to hit the KT-22 run Wednesday morning – an expert run – but they wanted to be the first people out there as the run opened for the season.
Still, they tell CBS13 they'll be back out there Thursday when Palisades reopens the mountain, refusing to let this scare them.
- In:
- avalanche
- Palisades Tahoe
- Featured
veryGood! (987)
Related
- Chicago Bears will ruin Caleb Williams if they're not careful | Opinion
- Pilot error caused the fatal hot air balloon crash in New Mexico, NTSB finds. Drug use was a factor
- All talk and, yes, action. Could conversations about climate change be a solution?
- Spoilers! 'Blue Beetle' post-credit scene makes a big reveal about future of DC universe
- NFL power rankings Week 11: Steelers, Eagles enjoying stealthy rises
- Ron Cephas Jones Dead at 66: This Is Us Cast Pays Tribute to Late Costar
- The University of New Orleans picks 5 semifinalists in their search for a president
- Ron Cephas Jones, Emmy-Winning This Is Us Star, Dead at 66
- The Daily Money: Markets react to Election 2024
- Trump says he will skip GOP presidential primary debates
Ranking
- Police identify 7-year-old child killed in North Carolina weekend shooting
- Chad Michael Murray and Wife Sarah Roemer Welcome Baby No. 3
- From turmoil to triumph, Spain clinches its first Women’s World Cup title with a win over England
- Linebacker Myles Jack retires before having played regular-season game for Eagles, per report
- Women suing over Idaho’s abortion ban describe dangerous pregnancies, becoming ‘medical refugees’
- Patriots' Isaiah Bolden released from hospital; team cancels joint practice with Titans
- Patriots' Isaiah Bolden released from hospital; team cancels joint practice with Titans
- 37 Cheap Finds That Will Make Your Outfit Look Expensive
Recommendation
-
Indiana in the top five of the College Football Playoff rankings? You've got to be kidding
-
Fish found on transformer after New Jersey power outage -- officials suspect bird dropped it
-
Search for Maui wildfire victims continues as death toll rises to 114
-
Maui water is unsafe even with filters, one of the lessons learned from fires in California
-
New wildfires burn in US Northeast while bigger blazes rage out West
-
Those without homes 'most at risk of dying' from Hurricane Hilary in SoCal, advocates warn
-
37 Cheap Finds That Will Make Your Outfit Look Expensive
-
A raid on a Kansas newspaper likely broke the law, experts say. But which one?