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pessimistic_platypus t1_j1rxkn4 wrote

Only up to a point; air doesn't move as freely in snow as in, well, air, so you do eventually run out of oxygen if you can't create a sufficiently-large vent to the surface.

This article says that 70% of fully-buried avalanche victims die of oxygen loss within 35 minutes without an air pocket, and after 90 minutes, even air pockets aren't enough (unless they connect to the outside atmosphere).

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