On March 8, Alex Theaker was at work in Crested Butte, CO shoveling snow away from a vent on a home when a ‘roofalanche’ slid from above and landed right on top of him.
“It just buried me. Immediately I started wiggling and trying to get out and especially with how wet the snow was it just hardened like cement around me,” he told KDVR.
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Miraculously, Alex’s hands ended up above his head and he was able to clear a small air pocket around his face.
“That saved my life. I wouldn’t have had air in there without doing everything I did,” he said.
Alex tried in vain to scream for help, but it was useless. As time passed, Alex’s thoughts wandered to his friend Brad who died in an avalanche a few years ago, and of his wife, Tori.
Then, Alex’s world went dark, and the next thing he remembers is waking up in a hospital bed.
“I just laid my head down and I just passed out. I was under there for at least two and a half hours,” he explained. “I was 86 degrees. I think that was my core body temperature when they found me,” he added.
Alex doesn’t know how he survived but believes someone was looking out for him.
