Dominic Torro triggers AVALANCHE on Mount Washington and suffers life-threatening injury while skiing down ‘Airplane Gully’

A New Hampshire man who triggered an avalanche while skiing on Mount Washington is recovering in hospital after suffering a life-threatening injury.

Dominic Torro, 30, was walking down Airplane Gully about 11:35 a.m. Saturday with a friend when the strange incident occurred, the New Hampshire Fish and Game Department said.

Torro’s friend and another skier helped him and called 911. At 3:19 p.m., a National Guard helicopter crew located the wounded man and lowered a medic to reach him. He was then flown to Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon.

His current condition is unknown, but he is reported to have suffered a severe calf injury.

Torro is an avid skier who often posts his adventures on social media. He’s also no stranger to Airplane Gully, as he posted a GoPro-shot video of himself skiing down a steep mountain in 2022.

Dominic Torro, 30, was seriously injured after he was skiing down Airplane Gully on New Hampshire’s Mount Washington on Saturday morning when an avalanche occurred.

Dominic Torro pictured with his girlfriend Veronica in December 2022.

It is unclear what caused the avalanche over the weekend.

“Concerns about the specific and necessary medical actions reached such a level that a joint telephone call was made to a highly trained rural paramedic to provide medical advice to the two skiers providing assistance,” said Sgt. Glen Lucas with Fish and Game said.

During the hours the skiers waited for the rescue team, they managed to clear an area of ​​snow on the side slope so that paramedics had enough space to rescue Torro.

Mount Washington is located in New Hampshire and is the tallest peak in the northeastern United States at 6,288 feet.

Big Mountain is known for its sporadic weather, but Mount Washington Avalanche Center said it is “currently in the general advisory period” and “not yet in the daily avalanche danger rating on a 5-point scale.”

“The absence of a danger rating does not mean the absence of danger,” the center added.

The name “Airplane Gully” comes from a plane crash in 1959 when three AD-6 Skyraiders took off from Moffett Field during a training flight.

Torro was rescued at 3:19 p.m. by a National Guard helicopter crew that found him and lowered a medic to gain access to him. He was then airlifted to Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center.

Torro is an avid skier who often posts his adventures on social media.

The trio of planes flew over Yosemite Valley before climbing to the top of Tanaya Canyon.

Once they realized they had entered a “blind canyon”, each aircraft decided to turn 180 degrees to the left.

The pilots of the two aircraft performed turns. But one pilot hit the canyon wall with its right wing before the plane crashed into a steep embankment and exploded.

The plane landed at the bottom of a ravine, and it was not until 1970 that the crews decided to remove the plane.

Mount Washington is located in New Hampshire and is the tallest peak in the northeastern United States at 6,288 feet.

Torro’s friend and another skier who helped him decided to ski down the mountain themselves after he was rescued.

Torro’s friend and another skier who was helping him decided to ski down the mountain themselves after he was rescued.

Officials said they made it back to their vehicles safely.

Avalanches are thick clouds of snow that rush down mountaintops at extremely high speeds. Mount Washington Avalanche Centeron average 25 people are “in need of life-saving assistance” per year.

“Remember, you control your own level of risk by choosing when, how and where to travel in the mountains,” the center added.