Woman Buried In Avalanche Flatlines, Comes Back With Harrowing Story

Rhianna Shaw was living her life to the fullest at the young age of 22. She lived in Chichester, West Sussex, in the United Kingdom, but wanted to enjoy the ski season abroad. Her journey led her to Ischgl, Austria, where the snow was calling her name and waiting to pull her in.

In 2012, she and five of her friends arrived at the St. Anton Ski Resort, where they planned to enjoy their snowy vacation for the next two weeks. There would be hot tubs, drinks, and fine dining, if everything went to plan. Which it didn’t.

Right away, there were problems. There was a shortage of snow in the area, which made skiing harder than normal, and less enjoyable for the more experienced and daring, like Rhianna and her friends. They hoped for some greater snowy action, and they got their wish when a heavy storm blew into town.

For two days straight, no one at the resort could ski due to a terrible snow storm. When the danger subsided, a thick, fresh coat of snow gleamed throughout the Alps region. It was a beauty for most people, and for Rhianna and her friends, it was a call to action.

The six friends were trained in skiing and avalanche safety, so they felt prepared for the worst-case scenarios. There was a rush of excitement as they finally hit the slopes after two days stuck in a snow storm, so they all threw caution to the mountain, and let loose.

Rhianna and her friend Gordon went ahead of the others, but they all wound up meeting along the slope. Rather than staying in the piste where they’d be closer to the resort, they went off to a remote area where they could be as wild as they wanted.

As risky as they were acting, they weren’t completely going in blind. The area that Rhianna, Gordon, and their friends headed for was one they had been to before. The familiarity would still not spare them from danger.

In hindsight, going unprepared to an area they nicknamed “Death Valley” was definitely not the best plan, but they felt safe enough to let loose. As they sped across the snow, some on skis, others on boards, Rhianna was the most daring as she picked up speed, not seeing what was coming at her.

It was another skier. They collided into each other at ferocious speeds, and Rhianna went flying in the other direction, losing her skis completely. As she tumbled, she was hit with a spray of snow, and when she realized the source, she started to panic.

Rhianna thought the snow was accidentally sprayed from one of her friends, but the snow pushed her with such power she started to realize what was happening. An avalanche trapped her.

The heavy snow that pushed down against her body made it impossible for Rhianna to move or breathe. Then, there was a feeling of falling as the avalanche swept her away for at least 150 meters before she finally stopped moving entirely. There was an eerie, dampening silence.

Rhianna had a sense of what went wrong. The alps were already prone to avalanches, but the freshly fallen snow had made any activity especially dangerous. The collision with her friend triggered the whole event, and Rhianna recognized the grim reality — she had only a few minutes to live.

Specifically, she knew because of the avalanche training that she and her friends went through that she only had about 11 minutes before family was planning her funeral. A couple minutes passed, and Rhianna — completely trapped — was not feeling so well. Someone needed to find her and pull her out.

Naturally, anyone’s first instinct would be to pull themselves out, but snow in not as easy to escape from as people may think. Like wet cement, snow can become solid quickly, and with a few feet at least weighing her down, there was no hope in Rhianna saving herself.

Meanwhile, her friends on the surface gathered together. Because of how far the avalanche had pushed her, it was a challenge for the boys to find her without tracking equipment. All they had were their hands to dig. Quickly, they formed a brilliant idea that did the job.

The boys formed a line and systematically searched through all the snow. They spotted one of Rhianna’s skis, which helped them pinpoint where she was. Still, the search was taking much too long; as they dug through the snow, inch by inch, they couldn’t help but feel they were too late.

Back in the snow, Rhianna’s phone began to ring, but the call went unanswered. She called out for help as she began to feel faint of breath. The suffocating pressure of being buried so deep in the snow was too much for her; she had to do something — or perish.

Although she could see some light from the surface, she could hear no one around to her. Her calls for help wouldn’t reach any living ears, so she finally called it: she accepted her fate. She was going to die. There was nothing left to do but wait for darkness.

But then, still stuck, Rhianna’s mind wandered, and she saw something out of the ordinary: “I started walking along a pathway in this peaceful, pale forest,” she recalled. “It had big tall evergreens on either side…it looked like there was some kind of snow on the ground but not like snow as we know it.” Then, she woke up.

Rhianna suddenly found herself above the snow in the arms of her friend Gordon. He hugged her tightly saying how grateful he was that she was alive. She couldn’t help but make a joke of how clingy he was, but she herself was grateful, especially to her friends who managed to save her life. She was barely hanging on.

In the snow, Rhianna had spent few minutes conscious, then stopped breathing. It wasn’t until about 20 minutes later that she was pulled out of her frozen prison. Her skin was as white as the snow, her lips a dark purple, and without a clear pulse they could have declared her dead right then, but the boys held on to hope.

One of the 5 men began performing CPR on Rhianna. As grim as the situation was, Rhianna came back from wherever it was she had gone. Emergency services arrived and immediately took care of her. Soon she was back home in England, but nothing was the same.

Rhianna was aware of how lucky she was. Few ever survive an ordeal like the one she endured, but more than that it’s brought a change into her life. She didn’t plan on giving up her skiing, but she did commit to being just a little safer on her next trip. Believe it or not, she knew she could’ve suffered worse fates on that mountain, like spending 80 minutes in freezing water.