BellaOnline Forums Travel and Culture Polish Culture Slovakia, Tatra, Man urinates his way out of avalanche

BEER IS GOOD! <img src="/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" />

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/01/31/avalanche_escape/

Man urinates his way out of avalanche

By Lester Haines

Published Monday 31st January 2005 12:21 GMT

Hot on the heels of the tremendous news that beer can help fight cancer, we are delighted to report that a Slovak man trapped in his car after an avalanche urinated his way to freedom after working his way through 60 half-litre bottles of beer.

According to Ananova, Richard Kral was off on holiday when the snow swallowed his Audi in the Tatra mountains. Initially, he tried to dig his way out via the car's window, but soon realised that the snow would fill the vehicle long before he could break free.

Mercifully, he had stocked up on essential supplies of alcohol and quickly formulated a cunning plan: "I was scooping the snow from above me and packing it down below the window, and then I peed on it to melt it. It was hard and now my kidneys and liver hurt. But I'm glad the beer I took on holiday turned out to be useful and I managed to get out of there."

Rescuers eventually found Kral staggering drunk on a mountain path four days after his ordeal began.

Now we are a talented bunch south of the (Polish) border in Slovakia, but there are some sad limits to the heroics that even we good Savs can pull! This appeared about 4 days ago on a Slovak discussion forum and one realistic party pooper pointed out the reality that there is no where in Slovakia where roads cross avalanche zones where a car can be buried, and even less be buried for 4 days. Here in Alaska such a thing is possible but it rarely takes so long to clear the road - and that is without cars stuck in the snow. A life to save would be given much higher priority.

Now at the price of your soul you could waste 60 liters of good beer and pour it on snow to melt it, but that or warming it in your body, burning the carbohydrates and utilizing all the good vitamins and minerals brewed into good Slovak Pivo would still not melt enough snow to get you far.

To consider the solidity of avalanche snow, consider the weight and solid mass of snow after you have shoveled your driveway and then, of course, the snow plow comes by. THat solid berm of snow from the snow plow has been moved and manipulated a bit like snow in an avalanche, and that is why it is so heavy and solid. Digging inavalanch snow is very heavy work!

Kai the Snowman
Reporting from Alaska

what on earth has an antiquated concept like "the truth" got to do with a good story? <img src="/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

have you ever been to Framley?

http://www.framleyexaminer.com/pages/index.html

(one of my favourite websites when I'm bored at work)

Just as i thought! Beer is the essense of life. God bless beer!

I changed the title of the threat so that people would not think that we post it just because of the... urinating.

I guess, we all need to pray that nothing like this would even happen to us!

Yes, it is a good story! No, I do not know Framly but they are coming up in a new window now. Yes, some stories are so good that they OUGHT to be true, even if they are not!

OK, let us declare this one to be true.

Kai

Aah! The pause that refreshes (and may get us out of trouble too). Good story and chuckle of the day. <img src="/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" />

How incredibly foul. I can't believe this is posted.

I wonder if he wrote his name in the snow? <img src="/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" />

Writing his name in the snow of an avalanche... that would be unfair, it would give him more than his alloted 15 minutes of fame!

Kai