Hawk-eyed helicopter rescue team spots hiker buried up to neck and waving his hands for help

This crew from Air-Glaciers with laser-eye vision has saved the life of a hiker buried up to his neck on the side of a Swiss mountain. He only had one arm free that was sticking out of the snow to wave at the passing helicopter. The hiker was trapped for 6 hours and suffered hypothermia, but the searchlight saved him. The incredible footage was posted by Air-Glaciers-SA on Facebook. The crew was mobilized to search for a missing person in February: A young man had gone missing on a ski tour in the Liddes region and did not return. According to Unofficial Network, the hiker had informed his family of his route, which he had already taken several times, and his plan to return by early afternoon. 

The last clue before his disappearance was a photo of his passage over a pass, which helped the crew to search a particular perimeter. The intervention team of a pilot, a paramedic, a lifeguard guide and a second guide from the region went to the car park where the hiker had left his car to make sure he hadn’t returned in the meantime. The search began by flying over the route he had told his family about, but a fresh trace of his passage was perceived. The guide of the region followed the visible traces of the hiker, while the helicopter resumed its aerial search around the neighboring corridors. 

The pilot detected a sign of life up the corridor in a pile of snow by the simple light of the searchlight in the night. Buried for more than 6 hours, the hiker's head and one of his arms were sticking out of the casting that allowed him to signal to the helicopter. The lifeguard and the guide immediately began to pull him out of the snow. They were finally evacuated by winch from the small valley they were in. The hiker was safely airlifted with light hypothermia. Buried under snow while hiking is no news for anyone. According to CBS, two college students were rescued from a snowy mountaintop in the Adirondacks upstate after surviving 48 hours in a blizzard at the second highest peak in New York state, Algonquin Mountain.

Madison Popolizio and her boyfriend, Blake Alois, are experienced hikers but a wrong step made them plummet down the side of the mountain. "I was freezing. The fall pushed all of the snow up my jacket, into my gloves, in my boots," said  Popolizio. "I was covered in snow." She said she owes her life to her boyfriend. "I told him I can't really feel my legs anymore, I can't feel my feet and his first instinct... I'm sorry," she paused as she began to choke back tears." "[It] was to take his bag that was full of our supplies and our food and to dump it out and to pull it around my legs so I could stay warm."

She wouldn't have made it without him. In response to what gave her the will to survive, she said, "He told me how much he loved me and what our lives were going to be like when we got out," Popolizio said. After two freezing days and nights, the duo was rescued by the search unit and Ranger Scott Van Laer. They had no energy to move so they started screaming upon hearing the helicopter sounds. "We couldn't see them. We heard their voice, especially we heard her voice. It was just -- it just shot right through the air," Van Laer said. They were safely rescued after sustaining a few injuries.