After digging for three days, Natalia (24) and Sarah (20) were ready to spend the night outside in a snow cave. Then everything collapsed and buried them.
– It happened insanely fast. We are quite “blue” and bruised, says Natalia Maria Hamed (24) to VG.
She and her girlfriend Sarah Teich (20) wanted to find something to do outside.
– We got the idea to dig a snow cave, which I did as a child. We tried to build it really nice and spacious so that we could spend the night in it.
Under the last sod, the cave collapsed above them.
– There was a big boom, and everything fell straight on our heads, she says and adds:
– It took a few seconds before I realized what had happened. We didn’t think it could happen.
First she started pushing at the snow around her and calling for her lover.
– We were sitting next to each other when the snow cave collapsed, but when everything collapsed we were separated.
The 24-year-old tried to call out for his girlfriend but got no answer.
– I immediately thought that she was unconscious and that “now I have to get my girlfriend out”.
– Started digging with my hands
After pushing the snow away, Hamed manages to get out of the collapsed cave, but his girlfriend still doesn’t answer.
– I got to the top of the cave and called out to her, but heard nothing.
– How did you find her?
– All of the shovels were inside the cave, so I started digging with my hands over where she was before everything collapsed. I waited for a while and finally I heard her voice.
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After digging further down, she arrived at the top of her boyfriend’s head.
– I pushed the snow away from her head. She was calm, but completely pale in the face and very frightened. She was completely stuck.
Home alone
They had dug the snow cave in a pile of snow outside the house in Hovden in Setesdal.
– But we were alone and my girlfriend couldn’t move as she was stuck in the snow. If I hadn’t gotten out, we wouldn’t be alive today.
An hour after they got out of the snow, they noticed that the body had been hit.
– We thought that everything was fine, but when things had calmed down and the adrenaline was gone, we started to feel pain in our bodies.
The 24-year-old calls the emergency room and is told to come down for a check-up.
– We got a full checkup and looked quite bruised with bruises everywhere. The snow we got was quite hard.
Afterwards, she has struggled with pain in her back, but is very happy that it went well with no lasting damage.
Went viral
Now the couple hope that others will be careful if they dig caves at Easter.
They have posted one TikTok about the incident, to also prove to others that it can go wrong.
At the time of writing, it has over one million views.
– There has been an enormous response. Several people ask why we did it, and in retrospect I see that it was perhaps a bit idiotic, she says and adds:
– But many people also write that they had not thought about it themselves, and that it is good that we share what happened to make others aware.
We advise against snow caves
Former senior lecturer at Norway’s Sports Academy, Trond Augestad, advises against building snow caves.
– Snow caves are difficult to dig, he says.
– You never know how deep the snow is, or how high you should dig. If you dig into a weak layer in the screed, it can collapse. Everything that is over five meters and steeper than 30 degrees is dangerous for avalanches, he says.
He advises people to make an edge pit instead. He has previously shared the recipe for how to build them Youtube.
– An edge pit is when you open the top of a snow edge, dig out a trench, and cut out blocks on both sides into the trench. You put the blocks on as a roof.
Augestad says that he has buried over 1,000 students in edge pits, and has never experienced an accident with them.
An alternative he also recommends is to dig a pit straight down on flat ground. Then you can put on the roof.
TV2 has also mentioned the case.
– You can absolutely sleep in snow caves! Snow caves are just fun, but they can be dangerous if they are not built correctly, says snow cave expert Thorbjørn Martin Kaland to TV2.
