Argentinian Skier Deploys Airbag Inbounds, but Was He Caught In an Avalanche?
Ski instructor Maruo F. was enjoying delicious powder turns at Argentina’s Cerro Catedral ski resort on July 28, 2026, when he noticed something wrong.
Just as Mauro passed a group of rocks peeking out from the freshly fallen feet of snow, he spotted a skier tumbling head over heels in what appeared to be an avalanche slide path. The skier didn’t travel far in the debris, but he deployed his avalanche airbag in the process.
Mauro approaches the skier, covered in snow, and asks in Spanish if he’s okay. The skier replies, “Yes, I’m okay,” (also in Spanish) with a chuckle.
Tap or click the video below to watch the scene unfold.
You can see the full video here.
Mauro confirmed that no one was hurt and reminded his followers that avalanches can occur inbounds despite mitigation efforts.
While most commenters were happy to see this situation end without further incident, others have been quick to make assumptions. Some are arguing that the skier wasn’t caught in an avalanche, but rather his own slough.
“That’s just a sluff, [it ‘s] not an avalanche mate,” wrote one commenter. Another, more jaded commenter, on the other hand, blasted the skier for deploying his airbag too late. “Like most people, [he] pulled his airbag when it was [too] late. [These] bags kill more people than they save. If you don’t have the skill, stay away.”
Slough, also written as sluff, is the snow a skier moves downhill when carving a turn or coming to a stop. On a powder day, slough can move fast and resemble an avalanche with its ability to sweep skiers off their feet.
It’s possible this skier got caught in his own slough, but does that matter for avalanche safety and education? No. The slough was moving him quickly downhill, and I, too, would have been afraid of getting buried when the slough came to a stop and started to pileup.
So, without more context of what happened prior to Mauro’s video recording, we’re going to chalk this incident up as a win.
An avalanche airbag was deployed. Nobody ended up buried, hurt, or worse, and both skiers presumably went back to skiing near-bottomless powder in the sunshine. That’s all we can ever hope for.
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