Anaris Blizzard: Survival and Tragedy

0:00On April 4th, in February 1978, a freak blizzard slammed the anteris mountains in Sweden, killing eight cross-country skiers out of, nine caught in the storm. The group from Southern Sweden, part of a sobriety club, had set out from a mountain lodge on a clear day, but hurricane winds and temps below minus. Twenty degrees turned deadly fast. They linked up with three other skiers from the lodge, totaling nine, and hunkered down in a snow pit with a tent and wind sack. The storm raged for days, ripping away shelter and bearing them in drifts, while failed radio calls left them isolated through freezing nights. Rescuers, alerted by fishermen after the lone survivors staggered to help, faced a grim scene of frozen bodies scattered like after an explosion. Mountain rescuer John Eric Olofsen still recalls the horror nearly 50 years later, hauling the dead down on sledge with respect under blankets. The mystery lingers on why their well-packed gear-sleeping bags, thermoses went unused, likely from shock and panic in the sudden onslaught.

1:03Survivor Krister Omkivist, just 22, kept moving to stay warm, dug out two briefly alive friends, but lost parts of his hands and feet to. Frostbite. Omkivist lived quietly after, unable to work for years, while a memorial cross in Grendelon honors the eight lost to that brutal cold.