British boarders cheat avalanche death

Updated 23.11 Wed Oct 22 2008

Keywords: Eric Themel, Johno Verity, avalanche, New Zealand, Mount Cook, snowboard

Two British snowboarders who narrowly escaped death in an avalanche in New Zealand captured their near miss on camera.

Johno Verity and Eric Themel scaled the country's famous and Mount Cook to film a promotional video.

By by the end of the day, the best footage they had captured was of their own brush with death.

An avalanche threatened to engulf them on their descent and while Johno struggled to get out from under the tidal wave of snow, Eric, who had avoided the main thrust of the avalanche, struggled to reach his friend.

Johno said: "I looked around and realised the whole face was going and that I was on a slide. I could see to the left and right that I was in the middle. It was going way faster than I could have ridden.

"The snow came from behind me, flipped me on my front and then just started piling on top of me."