A woman who was skiing with her dog accidentally triggered a small avalanche, and her helmet-cam video went viral. The woman, Ares Masip, was on Pic de l’Hortell, a mountain in Andorra, with her dog, Cim, when the incident occurred. In her helmet-cam video, you can watch the sudden river of snow sweep her down a steep slope as Masip calls out repeatedly for her dog. Both Masip and Cim are okay, and Masip says she shared the footage to explain what happened.
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“Today I triggered an avalanche (Zona Cim de l’Hortell, in Andorra, orientation N-E, height 2400 approximately),” wrote Masip in her Instagram post sharing the video (translated from Catalan). “It’s a very familiar place to me. This year I went down 7 or 8 times. And, of the last 5 days, today was the third time. [. . .] All in all, a lot of factors have added up that made me think it was safe. And this is where it enters, what is known as a heuristic trap . . . a mental bias that makes you simplify reality and overestimate safety when, objectively, the risk is there: known place, supposed low risk, recent repetition, unambitious objective [. . . ] it’s good to remember that risk 0, simply, doesn’t exist.”
Get tips for surviving an avalanche here.
Watch an avalanche sweep up a skier and her dog:
Header stock image by Jag_cz/Getty Images
