Quick heads up. This is a pretty emotionally intense story. I just thought you should

know in advance. On April 11th, 2019, the weather was what

backcountry skiers call a bluebird day. The sky was piercingly blue. The snow was sparkling

and the sun was warm. It was a sunny day, clear, the kind of day that brings people out

to where I create. And Frank Karris was investigating a possible avalanche.

He could see what's called a crown line. It's a cut across the snow where everything underneath

it has fractured and tumbled down the slope.

So I got in a position where I could use the binoculars. I thought I saw ski tracks

going into it. Could not really confirm that there was just one, but my suspicion, my

hackles were up. So I got my skis ate an avocado and took off on the snow wheel.

At the time, Frank Karris was lead snow ranger and the director of the Mount Washington

Avalanche Center in New Hampshire. With more and more skiers venturing out into the back

country, it was his job to assess avalanche risk and conduct search and rescue efforts

when something went wrong. And you might notice Frank sounds remarkably calm. And that's

exactly the kind of quality you want in someone with this job.

I just take my way and there's no track below the debris.

Frank was pretty sure he could see ski tracks going into the avalanche, but it didn't

look like anybody had come out on the other side.

D2 or more. Avalanche's have their own rating system like hurricane categories or the

Richter scale. They range from a D1 to a D5 where the D stands for destructive size. A D1

is minor, loose snow sliding down the mountain. This was a D2, which doesn't sound particularly

impressive, but it's still big enough to bury a person.

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