Helmet cams reveal lucky avalanche escape

Cameras worn by a trio of Danish skiers have captured the moment their friend triggered an avalanche which swallowed them up and spat them out on a Canadian ski-slope.

The man - 21-year-old Kristian Klausen - unwittingly kicked off the avalanche from the top of a slope while skiing off-piste in Whistler in 2013.

"Get out! Watch out!" Mr Klausen shouted in Danish, but it was too late for his friends to dodge the snow seen breaking away from the mountain below him.

Fellow skier Nicolai Kanstrup, 22, recorded the moment he was buffeted by the snow and knocked 15 metres down the slope, losing his poles and skis.

The third man, Thomas Mohl, 20, was worst hit: he tumbled more than 70 metres, almost the entire length of the run.

He was buried up to his chest in snow at the bottom of the slope and had to be dug out by his friends.

Unharmed, the trio laughed off the incident.

"It was f---ing huge!" Mr Klausen said.

While the wall of snow looked imposing to the men, it was categorised as a mere class one avalanche: "relatively harmless to people, only a few centimetres deep at the most", according to the Canadian Avalanche Centre.