AN ACCIDENT nearly ended in tragedy at the Ždiar-Strednica ski resort on January 27 when a young boy participating in an organised trip from Poland skied outside the designated boundaries and fell into a 1.5-metre-deep pond used to make artificial snow. The boy, aged 11, was pulled from the freezing water by other skiers and ski-lift operators.
A patrol from the Tatra Mountain Rescue Service brought him to their rescue station but because he was in the cold water for only a short period of time he showed no signs of hypothermia or other injury.
After drying his clothes for about two hours the boy departed for home with his parents, Jaroslav Švorc, the head of the Tatra Mountain Rescue Service, told the SITA newswire, adding that although the boy was totally submerged for a while, he had been pulled from the water quite quickly and no long-term negative consequences are expected.
“In my 30 years of service, we have had burn injuries and a skier run down by a car; but having a skier almost drown is something unheard of,” Švorc told the TASR newswire.
