Skier survives being buried under an avalanche for 23 hours — and doctors are stunned

It was a miracle under ice.

Escaping a snowy entombment intact might seem like a stunt relegated to “Mission Impossible” movies.

But a super fit 54-year-old Italian skier who survived for 23 hours buried under an avalanche has miraculously relearned how to walk — and has even taken up skiing again.

“Not even the doctors can explain how it’s possible,” Carluccio Sartori told Newsflash while recounting his incredible recovery 14 months later. “I should have died after the first eight or 10 hours.”

“For them [medics], it was inexplicable,” added Sartori, who was later treated for fractures and frostbite on his hands and feet. “The doctors have said that I have a perfect physique.”

The freak accident occurred in January 2023 while the avid alpinist was hitting the slopes in the Val Badia mountains in South Tyrol, Italy.

Disaster struck after an avalanche inundated Sartori with tons of snow for nearly a full day, during which time temperatures plunged to a bone-chilling 5 degrees Fahrenheit.

Nearly a day later, rescuers arrived on the scene expecting to find a dead body — only to discover the father of two conscious and even able to chat.

Now, more than a year since the avalanche nearly destroyed his body, Sartori has learned how to walk again.

“My right foot had small problems, but it is on the mend,” said the outdoor enthusiast, who lives in Villanova Marchesan. “I have some problems with my right hand, but otherwise I’m fine.”

He added that he still has trouble closing his right hand completely but is just glad that it’s “intact,” local media reported.

More mystifying to doctors was how he survived his day-long snowy burial in the first place.

“When they [rescuers] found me, I was conscious and with a body temperature of 23 degrees” — about 73 degrees Fahrenheit, the third “severe” stage of hypothermia — while adding that “everything was working perfectly.”

According to the Sierra Avalanche Association, most deaths from avalanches are caused by asphyxiation, which is unsurprisingly time-dependent. Survival chances clock in at 95% if the victim is extracted within 15 minutes, but that probability plunges to 37% after just 35 minutes.

Thankfully, Sartori says that an air chamber formed at the surface of the snow, providing him with a “funnel” of oxygen while also insulating him from the outside temperatures like a cryogenic chamber.

Sartori also suggested that his constitution might have helped prevent him from ending up in an icy grave.

He said doctors commented on his super fit body — despite him not seeing himself as a paragon of healthy living.

“I play sports, I go mountain biking, but I’m not a fanatic about healthy eating,” he explained. “I don’t smoke, it’s true, but every now and then I drink wine and beer.”

However, Sartori — who admitted to being “so scared” — ultimately attributed his survival to his mental fortitude and extreme will to live.

“I knew I shouldn’t give up, I shouldn’t fall asleep at all; otherwise, that would have been the end of it,” he told local outlet Ansa.

“I moved the only hand I could with micro-movements,” he said. “I tried to resist; I dug a hole for myself to breathe.”

As he was buried, he feared his heart might stop, but he didn’t let that break his “focus.”

And, contrary to the “family flashback” trope oft depicted in survival flicks, Sartori said he purposefully refrained from thinking of his wife and kids during the ordeal as “that would have been the end,” he said.

“It saved my head: after the first few hours, I just concentrated on staying alive,” recalled the skier.

Thankfully, his persistence paid off. Eventually, snow fell away due to his body heat, and he was able to free his arms.

Shortly thereafter, rescuers arrived and transported Sartori to the San Maurizio Hospital in Bolzano.

Now the Italian admits that he’s even done a “few ski mountaineering trips this year” — despite suggesting that his family would “kill” him if he ever returned to the slopes.