STRICTLY judge Anton Du Beke has told how he nearly “froze to death”.
The ballroom dancer, 58, got stuck in deep snow when he tried to walk up a ski slope wearing jeans and shoes – but no skis.
Anton Du Beke has revealed a terrifying moment where he almost ‘froze to death’[/caption]
Anton is best known for being on Strictly Come Dancing[/caption]
It came during a holiday with Anton and his wife Hannah and their twins George and Henrietta, six,
But while the rest of his family chose to ski, he didn’t join in for fear of injuring his dancing legs.
Anton said he still went to see them on the slopes, and when they got a chair lift to the top of a run, he decided to try and walk up the side off-piste to the top, not realising it was waist-deep snow.
As the snow became deeper, he ended up stuck and feared he would have to be rescued.
Telling the story, Anton told his podcast: “They (my family) are really good skiers, they’re marvellous skiers.
“So I went along – I don’t ski, so I just went along.
“It’s a terrible holiday to go on if you don’t take part.”Of course I don’t ski, no interest really – I’m so fearful of the old pins.”
Recalling how he wandered over to the bottom of the hill where his children were skiing, he said: “They went up the ski lift back up to the top. Few hundred metres.
“And I thought ‘I won’t get on the thing, I’ll have a wander – I’ll walk up’, the chair lift.”I said ‘I won’t take that, I’ll walk up’.
“And you might ask why, bearing in mind I hadn’t got the gear on.”I think I had a pair of jeans on.
“I had a snow shoe, just like a tennis racket on the bottom of the shoes, just like a normal trainer really but you can walk on slippery surfaces, but you can’t walk in waist deep snow in them.”
Continuing, the Strictly Come Dancing said: “I suddenly started walking up this bit that they weren’t skiing on, and it was snow. But snow, snow – waist deep snow.
“I got halfway up and I got a bit stuck.
“I was like ‘This is so embarrassing, I’ve walked up a hill of snow – everybody else is skiing in all the gear’.
“I looked like some bloke who got completely lost somewhere else and just wandered into this – an absolute idiot.
“I had visions of me being rescued on the side of this hill. It was so humiliating.”
Fortunately, Anton, did eventually manage to fight his way free, and slowly battled his way up through the deep snow to safety, getting wetter and colder with every tiring step.
He said: “I forced myself to walk up. I froze to death, I was wet – one of the most humiliating things ever.
“Literally, people looking at me, skiing past, going ‘What are you doing?’ “
Following the “humiliation” two years ago, Anton said he decided to stay home when Hannah and the children went skiing again recently.
Anton’s admission came just weeks after former tennis ace Andy Murray admitted he had to be rescued from a ski mountain after missing the last chairlift of the day.
Anton said he didn’t go skiining again after the incident two years ago[/caption]
