A professional skier from Whistler, B.C. who survived a horrifying 487-metre tumble down an Alaskan mountainside is sharing his incredible story.
Ian McIntosh was filming the new ski movie “Paradise Waits” on the Neacola Mountains in April when the 34-year-old accidentally skied into a five-foot trench and wiped out.
“It surprised the heck out of me,” McIntosh told Good Morning America this week. “I knew at that point it was game over and I was going for the ride of my life.”
Because there was a camera mounted on McIntosh’s body and another watching him from the sky, the entire terrifying tumble was recorded – including audio of the professional skier’s muffled yells and moans.
The fall lasted a little under a minute, but for the man at gravity’s mercy, it seemed much longer.
“It felt like an eternity, man,” McIntosh said. “I thought: This is never going to stop.”
The footage was uploaded to YouTube days ago by Wyoming-based media company Teton Gravity Research, and has already racked up more than a half-million views.
But it’s more than just a viral video – the accident also serves as a reminder to all skiers and snowboarders about the importance of being prepared.
McIntosh only suffered bruising in the fall, but it could have been much worse if he hadn’t been wearing an airbag built into his backpack.
The skier said the moments before he remembered to yank the deployment cord were like getting “hit by linebackers the whole way down the mountain, over and over and over again.”
After McIntosh slides to an eventual stop, there’s a short pause in the footage before he reassures his teammates: “I’m OK. I’m OK,” he gasps.
Despite the harrowing ordeal, the skier said he has no plans to give up the sport.
“I don’t have a death wish,” McIntosh said. “But I do wish to live life to the fullest and go out there and live my dreams, and this kind of stuff is what I dream about.”
