The snowmobiler was miraculously dug out alive with four others – but a video shows how two died in the Russian horror.
A group of seven were buried under a tidal wave of rolling snow in the remote Khakassia region of southern Siberia.
The video catches the moment rescuers frantically clear the snow from one live survivor.
The victim is close to death, breathing hard and moaning as he is gradually uncovered.
A hand of another is also visible.
The bodies of two male Russian tourists, aged 35 and 42, lie on the snow.
An unnamed survivor gave a dramatic account of how he had given up hope of living at the moment he was found by rescuers.
“The only thing I managed to do when I saw the avalanche coming was to shout ‘STOP’ to the guys who were behind us,” he said, according to The Siberian Times.
“This saved them from getting right into the epicentre. I started my snowmobile, pressed full speed and once it swam inside the avalanche I jumped off.
“I got swallowed by the avalanche immediately. For a long time I was under very thick snow.
“It was complete silence and darkness. The first thing I did was to push snow away from my face by moving both my head and my chest, trying to free some space so that the snow didn’t get too hard.
“With an enormous difficulty I took helmet off and tried to recover my breath by pushing my fleece over my mouth and trying to breath in with my nose, and out with my mouth under the fleece.
“My hopes for rescue were melting away with every passing second. Snow was crushing me stronger and stronger and I struggled to stop myself panicking.
“At least three times I went through a really strong heartbeat and very shallow breath.
“I had to fight with myself to regain control over my feelings. All my thoughts were about my family.
“I realised this was very likely the end. When I took what felt like my last breath, I suddenly saw a flicker of light, and that gave me mad hope that I wasn’t done yet.
“Then a feeler [prodded into the snow by rescuers] touched my leg, and it was one of the best sensations of my life.
“The first part of my body that they dug was my hand. Somebody touched it and I had enough strength to squeeze back.
“I realised I’ll live.
“No words can express how grateful I am to everyone who took all their energy to dig with spades, sticks, hands, anything they could use, to rescue us.”