[VIDEO] Woman Injured by Avalanche in Argentina Rescued After 7 Hours

A woman injured by an avalanche near Ushuaia, Argentina, yesterday was successfully extracted by rescuers after a grueling seven-hour rescue in the midst of a snow storm. The woman was unable to walk and had to be pulled off the mountainside in a sled.

Skiers in the Cerro Godoy area near the Martial Glacier—the same area as the woman and the other person she was skiing with—alerted Argentinian authorities of the avalanche after they saw what had happened. The skiers located the hurt woman and kept her stable and warm as they waited for rescuers to show up. But that was only the beginning.

It was cold, blustery, and snowing as heroic rescuers moved the woman to safety. The video above shows them slowly dragging her immobilized body in a sled in Argentina’s steep Andes Mountains. The status of the person she was skiing with remains unknown at this time.

By the time it was all said and done, the rescue had taken seven hours and the injured woman was transported to a local hospital well after nightfall. Facebook page infromeblanco shared the video of the rescue above and wrote in the post’s caption, translated from Spanish:

“The rescue was carried out by the Ushuaia Relief Commission and lasted more than 7 hours in the middle of a storm ❄️ The incident happened on Tuesday. The Relief Commission had to assist a couple in an emergency who were affected by an avalanche.. A call alerted the Municipal Civil Defense of the situation and the rescue operation was mounted. Soon it was learned that the woman had been located by other people who were also skiing in the area. The rescuers arrived to the Cerro Godoy area, on the way to the Martial Glacier, managing to find the young woman. She was making a ski crossing with friends who gave radio notice of the emergency. By 7:50 p.m. (already nighttime) the injured woman from Ushuaia was in an ambulance and on her way to be evaluated in a local hospital.”

The woman’s harrowing tale shows the complexity that is often involved with backcountry rescues and the great lengths search and rescue teams often go to help those involved in avalanches.