CALGARY - It took Eric Vezeau a split-second to absorb the life-and-death scenario he was literally plunged into, and just as long to go into survival mode.
And after walking out of the semi-frozen Johnston Creek Monday, hypothermic but alive, the B.C. man said he is grateful for a life-saving combination of luck, the will to live, and the kindness of strangers.
"I was just kind of floating, barely touching the bottom and there was nothing to grab on to," he told QMI Agency Wednesday, recalling the moment he stepped off the shore and went through ice into the bone-chilling water.
"That was the scariest moment -- you think of your loves ones, your family, my mom, my dad, my girlfriend."
The ordeal began after Vezeau, who is an assistant ski guide for Yamnuska Mountain Adventures, finished teaching an avalanche awareness course and went to do some solo exploring at Johnston Canyon near Banff.
The 42-year-old, who had an ice axe, hiking crampons and backpack filled with a down jacket, radio, thermos and other gear, was enjoying the walk when he got too close to the edge.
Chest-high in water with no perches to grab onto and only rock walls on all sides, he had a moment of panic.
With a 25-lb back-pack on his back and losing energy, he also had limited time to come up with an escape plan.
"I was in survival mode," he said.
Trying to take his backpack off, Vezeau went under the ice, losing both it and his axe.
Pulled along by the water, he said there was a space some six-inches between the water and underside of the ice allowing him to breathe.
Trapped in the cold, the icy prison suddenly widened and he "reappeared" in a cave.
"The water was about two-feet deep and I could stand but there was no exit and I had no tools and I was pretty freezing," he said.
Figuring he had been in the water about two to three minutes and still wearing his helmet, Vezeau tried yelling, kicking at the ice and repeatedly slamming his head into it to try to break out.
"I was trying to see if I could crack it with my head but didn't manage to do it," he says.
"It was three or four minutes and nothing."
Realizing he wasn't going to drown, as he originally feared, Vezeau was terrified hypothermia would get him.
His clothes heavy, legs tingling and body becoming stiff, Vezeau took the chance of slipping back into the water and letting it push him along, hopefully, to an opening.
"I had no other options, and 'poof,' I saw daylight and a person yelled at me to tell me help is on the way," he said, describing how strangers threw him a rope attached to branch and pulled him to shore.
"It's just pure, damn luck I didn't die," said Vezeau, who was treated for hypothermia.
"It's just damn luck, the will to live and I'm really grateful that (people) helped out ... I'll stick to skiing."
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