Rafael Pease went into the Chilean Andes to ride fresh powder on his 21st birthday. Instead, he spent the day digging a starving mare out of belly-deep snow. GoPro published his helmet-camera footage as "Chilean Horse Rescue" on 6 October 2015, and the clip went around the world within days.
Finding the horse near El Colorado
Pease, then a University of Colorado student, was snowboarding with a friend near El Colorado, one of the ski areas above Farellones, about 36 km north-east of Santiago. Resorts here, including El Colorado, La Parva and Valle Nevado, sit on slopes that rise above 3,000 m. At first he mistook the dark shape on the slope for a rock. "When I realized it was a horse, I decided to boot-pack over there to see if I could do something," he told The Horse.
The chestnut mare was stuck up to her belly in powder up to four feet (about 1.2 m) deep. She had stopped trying to move and was lethargic and thin, with her ribs showing. Pease later learned she had been missing for about four days. "She was obviously going to die if we didn't do something to save her," he said.
How the snowboarders dug her out
The two riders first shared their own food and water with the mare. Then they took out their snow shovels and went to work. They freed her legs from the packed snow and ice, and then cut a trench she could walk along towards bare ground and grass. Pease said the digging took four to five hours.
Once she could move, they led her about six miles (roughly 10 km) down the mountain until she could rejoin her herd and be reunited with her owner. The mare, an older horse, came out of the story with a name, Garbanza.
Why horses get trapped in deep snow
Horses carry a lot of weight on four small hooves, so they punch through soft snow far more easily than a person on a snowboard or skis. In deep powder, every step costs a horse huge effort. A tired animal soon stops moving, and it can no longer reach grazing under the snow. Chile's Andes get their snow during the southern-hemisphere winter, roughly June to September. Late-season storms can catch livestock grazing on high slopes, and a stranded animal there faces cold and hunger together.
Pease's kit made the difference. Backcountry riders carry a shovel, a probe and an avalanche transceiver for their own safety, and the same shovels let two people move tonnes of snow in an afternoon. Go with a partner and that kit any time you leave the groomed runs. If you find an animal in trouble, call local rescue services or the owner as well, and give a precise location.
Watch the GoPro film
GoPro shot the film on a HERO3+ camera and set it to music by Gossamer ("For Sleep") and William Ryan Fritch ("Chatter of Birds"). Afterwards, Pease said he hoped the story would inspire people "to get out there and not only live your life to the fullest, but to help others do the same."
For more animals in winter, read about the Coast Guard’s rescue of KC, see Akiak’s Norway photo collection, or meet Stetson the Horse Rolls in an Unusually Snowy Paddock.
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