Snowboarder Tom Oye Demonstrates Why Avalanche Packs are Working in the Backcountry

If you haven’t seen this POV footage from Tom Oye, you need to. This is why avalanche backpacks with inflatable bladders are working in the backcountry. Oye takes a 1,000-foot ride on an avalanche that breaks away from the top of a slope near Whistler, Canada, carrying the Australian through a tight shoot and out onto into an open bowl. You can hear the pack’s bladder inflating around him, which keeps him on the surface of the sliding snow. The video has gone viral. Oye apparently recieved the pack as a gift from his family.