#ColledelGigante #MontBlanc #Avalanche

This is the terrifying moment an avalanche swept a skier 1,000ft down a mountain before he was remarkably found alive.

In the footage, taken by nearby French skiers, an avalanche can be seen careering down the Colle del Gigante area of Mont Blanc with a person skiing off-piste amongst the landslide.

They then appear to lose their footing before they are engulfed by the snow.

The unaffected skiers then make their way to the man, who is conscious, and one of them remarks ‘it is good to see you alive.’

An air ambulance is then called which took the casualty, identified as a 50-year-old German man, to a nearby hospital where his condition is not reported to be serious.

Leo, the French skier who filmed the incredible scenes, wrote on Instagram that it was the man’s air bag that likely saved his life.

He can be seen inflating the anti-avalanche rucksack – which is designed to keep skiers close to the surface in the event they get caught in an avalanche – before he disappears under the blanket of snow.

The shocking video was taken on the same day that five skiers were killed in two separate avalanches in the French alps.

One avalanche came in Val-Cenis, in the south-eastern Savoie region, killing four Norwegian skiers and another torrent of snow close to Chamonix killed a Swiss person.

Jacques Arnoux, mayor of Val-Cenis, said ‘It was an avalanche of great size which was triggered outside the ski area.’

Meanwhile last Tuesday, another massive avalanche near Chamonix killed a 55-year-old British man.

This avalanche, which tumbled down the Haute-Savoie in the Grands Montets ski area for a kilometre, forced the closure of a number of slopes next to the area due to the risk of another landslide.