Ski Rescue

From a vacationer who cannot remember the day to a woman who falls unconscious almost two miles up the mountain, rescue and medical teams of the Val Thorens ski resort deal with extreme conditions and daily accidents on the slopes of the French Alps.

During one of the most-dangerous skiing competitions in the seasons calendar, the changing weather causes difficulties on the mountains as the teams rescue a man who has cut open his face and a woman who has fallen over 40 feet without a helmet.

The Val Thorens Ski Patrol and the medics deal with a range of eye-watering emergencies, including a heli-rescue from a mountain, a little boy with slashed fingers and a woman whose leg has, as one medic says, "exploded."

Skiers love getting an adrenaline rush from going as fast as they can, but speed brings with it danger. A umpire who receives heartbreaking news and an elderly Canadian who stabs his face on a ski pole both pay the price for white-knuckle thrills.

The snowpark in Val Thorens has dozens of jumps, pipes and jibs for adventurous and acrobatic snowboarders and skiers. The teams deal with the range of emergencies the park incurs, including a teenager who has concussion and a man who breaks his spine.

In any exciting, high-octane pastime, accidents will happen -- so make sure you take out insurance. Victims who ended up in Val Thorens' emergency room quickly regret not paying that bit little extra for their vacation.

It's Changeover Day in Val Thorens, which means legions of first-time and out-of-practice skiers hitting the slopes and meeting with disastrous consequences. The teams deal with a woman who breaks her pelvis and a beginner who attempts the hardest run.

Getting down a mountain is easy, but getting up and around the area is a different matter. There's a rare crisis in Val Thorens when one of the cable cars breaks down, leaving up to 100 people dangling from a wire 165 feet above the mountainside.

It's Varsity Week when rival universities hit the town for a downhill grudge match alongside the usual cases from the slopes of Val Thorens. The teams deal with a teacher who breaks his collar bone and an architect who needs surgery after a nasty fall.

The Val Thorens' patrols work to prevent avalanches using dynamite and train their rescue dogs to find victims buried beneath the snow. Then, the teams search for a 14-year-old boy who goes missing after skiing off-piste alone.