Critically buried avalanche victims can develop severe hypothermia in less than 60 min.

Background: A major challenge in the management of avalanche victims in cardiac arrest is differentiating hypothermic from non-hypothermic cardiac arrest, as management and prognosis differ. Duration of burial with a cutoff of 60 min is currently recommended by the resuscitation guidelines as a parameter to aid in this differentiation However, the fastest cooling rate under the snow reported so far is 9.4 °C per hour, suggesting that it would take 45 min to cool below 30 °C, which is the temperature threshold below which a hypothermic cardiac arrest can occur.