Doing a backflip in an avalanche
Wednesday February 13, 2013 - Email this article to a friend

The Swedish skier, Sverre Liliequist, probably didn't know what was behind him as he competed in the Swatch Skiers Cup in Zermatt this week. A windslab avalanche. Check out the amazing video.

He was taking part in the Freeride event which sees Europe take on the Americas in a Ryder Cup-style competition.

It requires the riders to demonstrate their freeriding skills and tricks.

It has been held in South America and now has come to Europe for the first time.

Sverre Liliequist showed considerable skill and patience to come out unscathed.

For more information on the event and other videos then see here.

Below is a compilation film of the event.

The organisers of the event have stressed that the incident with Sverre Liliequist was perhaps not as dangerous as it looks.

"This was a windslab for sure but not an avalanche. What is impressive is the size of the snow cloud which looks big, but the amount of snow moving was not that big. Certainly not an avalanche," said one of the organisers to PlanetSKI.

Sverre Liliequist would not have wanted to have fallen on landing though.

Although the skiing looks perilous and potentially dangerous enormous efforts are made to ensure safety of the riders.

See here for the safety precautions taken at the event as the slope is assessed by experienced mountain guides before and during the competition.

The Swatch Skiers Cup is organised by some of the same people behind the Freeride World Tour.

PlanetSKI has followed the FWT over recent years and wrote this feature on the safety preparations on the round in St Moritz a couple of years ago when we were at the event.

The same level of precautions are taken in Zermatt.

One way to outrun an avalanche Dramatic stuff