This same thing happened when I spent a day with the Steamboat Powder Cats about 15 years ago. We were waiting at the cat for the last 3 skiers who were about 20 minutes late. The reason was the rear sweep guide and a friend came upon a pair of skis, bottom side up, just barely sticking out of the snow. Turns out it was one of the guides. It took the 2 of them digging and pulling with their hands to get him out. He was wearing a backpack that had a large carabiner on it and they were able to use that to pull him up. Unlike the video, the snow fell back into the hole as fast as they could dig it out. Champaign Powder. The guy was blue when they got him out. He wouldn't have lasted much longer. He said his skis got hooked on a buried branch or something and down he went.