PUYALLUP, Wash. -- A local soldier survived 15 months in the Iraqi war zone only to face another life-or-death situation back home in the U.S.

Staff Sgt. Nick Gleim, 24, of Puyallup, is attending school in Alaska. And that's where he found himself in deep trouble.

Gleim was back-country skiing with a friend at Chugach State Park near Eagle River when he was swallowed by an avalanche.

"I was kind of underneath the snow," he said. "Snow was getting shoved everywhere down my throat, and it's the realization that you're at the bottom of an avalanche and it's huge."

The impact of the rushing snow snapped mature Aspen trees by the dozens.

Gleim was carried 1,700 vertical feet down a steep chute.

"There was so much weight on my body I felt crushed, like my bones were going to collapse on themselves," he said.

But Gleim is not the type to sit and wait for help.

"The only thing I could think to do was hope (my friend) Luke was OK and swim like they do in avalanche class," he said.

Gleim believes he swam through the moving snow for about 45 seconds.

"Twenty five hundred feet later, I popped up on the surface and was able to get snow out of my system and take a breath, and rode it for the next 30 seconds or so," she said.

By the time he surfaced, Gleim was retching snow just to be able to breathe. He later learned the avalanche that swept him up ran for an entire mile.

Gleim says he doesn't know what he would've done if he hadn't taken an avalanche class.

"I really think the swimming movement saved my life and I wouldn't have known to do so otherwise," he said.

After the incident, Gleim promised his mother he'll never go back-country skiing again.