This sort of thing might work in the heart of the Alps where there are villages and helipads scattered around the bases of these giant mountains, but absolutely

This sort of thing might work in the heart of the Alps where there are villages and helipads scattered around the bases of these giant mountains, but absolutely do not rely on this type of rescue method in North America. The rate of survival after just 20 minutes of being buried drops logarithmically. Pulling someone out alive after 3 hours of burial as per this story is an extreme outlier. Also not to criticize but they got warning that someone was buried, got airborne in their helicopter, but then flew 8 minutes out of their way to a neighborhood to pick up a doctor first? That seems like a huge waste of time when every minute counts. Not to mention that searching a slope that just slid with a loud, powerful helicopter can easily cause additional slides onto the same area. The only way you're going to survive a full avalanche burial in the US or Canada is if you have an active beacon strapped to you and someone onsite survives the slide and finds you with their beacon + probe. Then they need to shovel through dense avy debris which is essentially cement. When snow slides, it rapidly heats up and then when it stops, it rapidly cools and hardens around a slide victim. Priority is to find the victim's head and clear the airway, then assess for injuries and warm them up. Helicopters aren't the "new age". Maybe someone will come up with a better way to precisely find victims than the current beacon technology. Maybe airbag technology will improve and become more successful. Maybe we'll go back to the really old days and ski with balloon attached to our waist to help quickly mark a burial location. Taking an AIARE course really opens your eyes to the violence and unpredictability of avalanches. Those cute ski dogs are there to find your dead body, not dig you out alive. Helicopters are there to transport you after you've been dug out, not to land and rescue you from burial. Be smart out there folks. If you're curious about learning more, read the incident reports from fatal avalanches. Centers around the country do very thorough examinations of each incident, and post them publicly complete with images, terrain reports, weather reports, and sometimes video reports. https://utahavalanchecenter.org/avalanches/fatalities https://utahavalanchecenter.org/avalanches/fatalities