Outside Magazine, March 2012
Tuesday, January 31, 2012 4

Trapped by an Avalanche

Avalanche Burial With Black Diamond Avalung

;

As told to Madison Kahn

Money Comment: “He didn’t even use the avalung. Way to go Black Diamond.”
Opportunist:
Adam Chamberlain, 38, vice president of marketing for Black Diamond, Salt Lake City
In the spring of 2008, a backcountry skier approached us with footage of one of our products in action. It started with a head-cam shot of a guy skiing epic powder in Alaska. Then the snow fractured beneath his skis. He was buried in the avalanche for almost five minutes before his friends rescued him. We’d never seen an avalanche video like it, and one of the reasons he survived was that he was wearing one of our backcountry safety devices. We paid a grand for the video, branded it, and posted it to Black Diamond’s website, where it went viral. A year later, people started posting comments disputing whether the avalung saved his life. He was wearing one. I think people just found it offensive that we had taken an organic gear testimonial and used it for marketing purposes.

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Comments

4
mongo

only thing better would have been if a dog had found him

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Danish

If you watch the full video you'll find that it was impossible for him to use the Avalung as his mouth was full of snow and he could barely breathe even after his friends uncovered him. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UxJkFME9pEI

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Pfffffrrrt

It was nice of his friends to leave him there for four hours. "Dude!!! That looked gnarl!y Lets have a few beers then go dig him out"

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Toolman11

You need to focus on that "This post was very nicely written, and it also carries a lot of useful facts. I appreciated your professed way of writing this post. Regards, Write My Essay

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