Mt. Baker rescue offers lifesaving lessons for backcountry enthusiasts

You may have seen the viral video of the dramatic rescue on Mount Baker last month captured on the GoPro of Francis Zuber, a skier from Bellingham. Snowboarder Ian Steger was buried headfirst under more than six feet of snow. Zuber told KUOW’s Kim Malcolm about the rescue.

This interview has been edited for clarity.

Francis Zuber: I caught this little flash of red out of the corner of my eye and I knew it was weird because we were out of bounds. Ski patrol wouldn't mark any terrain there. So, it made me stop and take a second look back. And that's where I saw the salmon snowboard there, with the bright red graphic, going back and forth in the snow. And I knew that there was somebody trapped in the tree well, that they were still alive clearly, and that I needed to get to them as quickly as possible.

Kim Malcolm: And there's just so much snow. It's such a steep slope. How did you get up there? What were you thinking as you were digging?

That was definitely the scariest moment for me, getting back up to him. The snow was incredibly deep that day. It had snowed somewhere around four feet throughout the week, and it was very light snow, very difficult to move uphill through.

It was really scary. I thought this person was going to die because I couldn't get to them in time. And I basically had to claw my way through the snow. Then I got close enough and was able to leverage myself up by grabbing his snowboard to get more on top of the snow, and start digging from there. It was a lot of work. Moving through all that snow and digging down. He's nearly six feet tall, so I had to dig down about six feet to get to him.

When you got to talk to him after you dug him out, what did he say to you?

After I pulled him out of the snow, the first thing I did was give him a big hug. He hugged me right back. He thanked me for stopping and said that I saved his life that day. It was just kind of this pretty incredible moment, and then he was able to radio to his buddies who were just below us and tell them that he was OK.

Have you stayed in touch with Ian?

We've been hanging out a lot. It's been great to get to know him and all his friends. He was born and raised in Bellingham and is a really well-liked guy, which is just the cherry on top of the whole thing. I mean, saving anyone's life is a pretty remarkable experience. And then you find that it's this person who's very loved in the community really just kind of adds to the whole thing. We went skiing this past Saturday, and he showed me all his favorite lines. I'm incredibly grateful to him as well. He's been very gracious through the whole thing.

Is there a lesson that you think people can take away from this?

The scariest thing about this whole incident is that Ian is very experienced. He was with a group of friends that were also very experienced, had all the proper gear, they were in communication with each other. And this still happened.

Really, the biggest takeaway can just be complacency. Never get too comfortable in an area you've skied so many times. It can happen to you, whether it's your first time skiing or your 1,000th time skiing that same slope. And on top of that, just being trained and having all the proper gear if you're going to be in that kind of terrain. You should be, not always expecting it to take a turn for the worst because that'll ruin the fun a little bit, but ready if it does happen so that way you know what to do and you can rely on that training and not have to improvise right there on the spot.

Listen to the interview by clicking the play button above.