Large metal objects that you need to be wary of on ski slopes usually amount to ski lift struts or rogue snowmobiles. You don’t expect to be dodging what looks like a torpedo hurtling down the mountain.
But that’s exactly what skiers in in Aprica, Italy have to contend with in this video, when a passing helicopter accidentally drops what appears to be a gas cylinder onto a busy slope. Not something that comes up very often in skiing safety guides.
The video – posted to Instagram by photographer Štěpán Galle – shows the moment when the object falls from its rig dangling beneath the helicopter, hits the top of the slope like a bomb going off, then starts careering down the mountain, passing bemused skiers.
It’s like something out of an action movie, except in real life it actually looks downright bizarre. Luckily, nobody was hurt, Galle confirms, which is a relief – the speed that thing is going it could have done a lot of damage.
“I was like, ‘Ohh a helicopter – I want a video because I love anything that is flying,’” Glle explain in his post. “So I took out my phone and started to record.”
Great timing, as it turned out.
But then the object – which Galle speculates was a gas cylinder used to power avalanche mitigation devices like Gazex – fell and began its unexpected journey, with Galle shouting, “Look out!” to the skiers to warn them.
Galle also later posted a photo of the impact site.
The incident actually happened a few weeks back and has taken a while to go viral, so thanks to Powder.com for picking up on it.
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