An avalanche expert says two Calgary brothers who managed to survive burial by a snowslide are incredibly lucky.

The two were skiing in the backcountry of Spray Valley Provincial Park south of Canmore on Sunday when a wall of snow swept over them.

One of the men was buried waist-deep and managed to get himself out. He found his brother using a transceiver.

"This is an incredibly close call to having a very sad ending to it. They're very, very lucky," said George Field, a public safety specialist with Kananaskis Emergency Rescue based in Canmore.

The buried man appeared blue when he was uncovered, but started breathing again on his own after his brother gave him some air, Field said.

His brother then tried calling for help, but was out of cellphone range. He then walked to a payphone a few kilometres from the avalanche site.

Emergency crews quickly arrived from Canmore and Banff and the two men were airlifted to hospital.

The avalanche rated a 2.5 on a five-point scale.

Park rangers are testing the snow, but Field said the slide danger has been high for most of this winter.

"We had two accidents on Tryst Ridge -- This one last weekend and then on Boxing Day, a lucky person triggered an avalanche," he said. "Same snow conditions, same steepness."

In the same general area in early December, two men died in a fatal slide on Tent Ridge. Several people saw the slide and dug the men out, but they couldn't be saved.

Ten people have died this winter in avalanches in Alberta and British Columbia.

A Monday report on the Kananaskis Country website rates the avalanche risk as "considerable for the treeline and above, and "moderate" below the treeline.

Backcountry skiers are advised to avoid slopes of steeper than 30 degrees.

With a report from CTV Calgary's Bill Marks