Luminous

iTrader: (3)

So, there I was walking up the high street off to get my hair cut. I'm minding my own business, but out of the corner of my eye I see another chap on the other side of the road. Not really sure why I noticed him, but something was "afoot"....

....then I twigged, I could hear this loud rushing/ rumbling noise. For a half a second I could not work out what it was, but then I remembered that the snow was starting to melt. The noise was coming from the roof above this guy.

As I looked up I could see the entire roof full of snow start to slide downwards. In true avalanche style its started to flow over the edge of the roof heading straight down towards this chap. We are talking about a roof with a 20 foot long edge, about 15 feet up to the ridge and all 3 inches deep in snow. This is a a massive volume of snow

I knew what was going to happen, and could see it all in slow motion. The chap underneath could not see what was happening on top of the roof as he was directly underneath it. He could hear the massive rumbling sound, but it was all too late for him. He looked up, just as a Niagra style volume of snow shoots straight over the edge, hammers towards the pavement and buries him in one almighty blast.

At first I was concerned, the sheet weight of snow meant it had been quite an impact for him, and if there had been ice in there then he might have needed some help. As it was, it was just nice soft snow, with his head and shoulders sticking out of the top of the snow mound.

There is no snow anywhere else on the street, just the massive pile with this chap right in the middle He carrier bag is completely filled with snow, and about 6 inches sticking out of the top. He has a massive snow cone on top of his head. His t-shirt has billowed out like the Michelin man (with snow), and his top looks more like a snow jacket than whatever it had been 10 seconds before.

I'm standing there crying with laughter, and the only thing he asks me?
"Did I manage to get it on camera?"








Nope, sorry, just too damn slow

PaulC72

damn another £250 missed ;-)

pimmo2000

iTrader: (6)

lol .. no after shot either?

WRX_Dazza

hahahhaha, a nice christmassy story

apples24

iTrader: (1)

thats would of made my year to of watched that sounds highly amuzing

r32

You were lucky to witness it, good job it was you on the opposite side of the street and not him watching you..........

WRX_Dazza

funnier still would be a roof full of snow landing on the laughing OP immediately afterwards !!! hahahah

Luminous

iTrader: (3)

Hell yeah, but he came over to my side of the street afterwards (well his was now blocked by the avalanche). He did look nervous as he was passing under the buildings, but as I said to him, lightning does not strike twice. Hence I was sticking to him like glue


Oh, and no after shot either....that was the point at which I did actually have genuine concern for his well being after what must have been close to a ton of snow landed on top of him in only a couple of seconds.

WRX_Dazza

im sure you will be laughing about this for many a year !!!

Leslie

But it never occurred to you to warn him in case he was badly injured by ice or even some embedded object! You said you thought he might get hurt.


Les

Luminous

iTrader: (3)

At what point could I warn him? Start to finish was under two seconds, and that included the time it took me to realise what was going on. The worlds best gymnast would not have managed to get out of what was coming his way It was a HUGE wall of snow, I suppose he could have jumped into the road, but the big red bus may have hurt more...

Leslie

The impression from your first post was that it it all took a bit longer than that. Had he known he might at least been able to duck and protect his head. Looks like he was lucky overall then.

Les

Luminous

iTrader: (3)

Sorry for the confusion Les. The brain was still cold from the walk out when I wrote that. I'd not be as callous as to see something like that and not tell someone. I think

Leslie

No need for the apology-all understood.

Thinking about it, even if you had been able to shout at him his reaction probably would not have been fast enough anyway. Must have been one of those things you see and can do nothing about.

Les

Luminous

iTrader: (3)

Well, if I had shouted over to him, he may most probably would have looked up.....and got it in the face

You have just given me a cunning (if somewhat cruel) plan should I see the same events unfold in the future (joking)


But it is true, no matter where you are if you should watch out to someone, the first thing they tend to do is stand still and look for what is coming straight for them The human body reacts naturally in strange ways. When I went caving we had to be taught that if someone shouted, NEVER to look up. Move if you want, but just don't look up. Every now and then the instructor would drop a pebble from above and shout, just to ensure people learned the message before it was a rock that would actually do real damage. I should add that we were wearing hard hats.....which are of course only effective if you don't look at what is about to hit you

Quasi Modo

That's another fine mess he got himself into.
Of all the places to be eh, right under the exact spot.
It reminds me of Unlucky Alf in the fast show.