Skier’s 1,600-foot fall down an Alaskan mountain will have you gasping in horror
If you don’t know big mountain skier Ian McIntosh, now you will.
The Canadian extreme athlete fell 1,600 feet down a mountain in Alaska’s remote Neacola range that’s known for its rugged peaks.
The run took place in April, but the video of McIntosh’s fall wasn’t released until last week.
You can hear his grunts and groans as he hurtles down the side of the mountain. Finally you hear a weak voice say “I’m OK. I’m OK.”
And he was.
McIntosh was filming a run on a particularly tough, steep spine for the ski and snowboard film “Paradise Waits,” by action sports media company Teton Gravity Research. It debuted this week in New York City.
McIntosh says in media reports that he lost control of his footing because of the steepness of the spine. He told the Daily Mail he deployed his airbag to avoid injuries.
Since then the video has gone viral, and McIntosh has appeared on “Good Morning America” and other shows.
On Wednesday, Teton Gravity released another video that provides the back story on how the ski run came about and what went wrong.
“On our original scouting mission, we noticed a spine wall that we started to call ‘Daybreak Spines’ because you have to get their super early in the morning,” McIntosh says in the second video.
“We went out there twice, and both times got shut down by a cloud layer that hung over the peaks right there.”
But he finally got his chance for the outing.
In the video, McIntosh says his neck hurts and he’s a little sore, but wanted to get back to work. That would mean more skiing. Um, yeah.
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