Paging Jan Harold Brunvand!

Just in case I'm not the last person to see this story:

Man peed way out of avalanche

A Slovak man trapped in his car under an avalanche freed himself by drinking 60 bottles of beer and urinating on the snow to melt it.

Rescue teams found Richard Kral drunk and staggering along a mountain path four days after his Audi car was buried in the Slovak Tatra mountains.

Oh, come on!

Hey, I grew up in the snowy wastes of the Wisconsin hinterlands, and it shouldn't come as a shock to anyone to learn that I've peed in the snow myself and witnessed the melting action. But it would never occur to me to pee my way out of an avalanche any more than it would occur to me to dig my way out of a cave-in with a teaspoon.

He told [rescue teams] that after the avalanche, he had opened his car window and tried to dig his way out. But as he dug with his hands, he realised the snow would fill his car before he managed to break through.

He had 60 half-litre bottles of beer in his car as he was going on holiday, and after cracking one open to think about the problem he realised he could urinate on the snow to melt it, local media reported.

He said: "I was scooping the snow from above me and packing it down below the window, and then I peed on it to melt it. It was hard and now my kidneys and liver hurt. But I'm glad the beer I took on holiday turned out to be useful and I managed to get out of there.

I don't believe the snow would melt any faster from peeing on it than from simply pouring the beer on it. But where would the fun in that be?

So is this why in cartoons we always saw Saint Bernards carrying casks of alcohol to the rescue?