Avalanche at Tunnel Creek | ‘Snow Fall’ with Adventure Journalist John Branch | 2

Against The Odds

Wondery

Cassie De Pecol, History, Society & Culture, Dolby, Mike Corey, Dolby Atmos, Atmos

4.7 • 7.2K Ratings

🗓️ 12 April 2022

⏱️ 45 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

When New York Times reporter John Branch first heard reports of an avalanche in Washington State, he didn’t think much about it. But when his editor asked him to poke around, John discovered the human story of a community of skiers and the passion that brought them face to face with powerful forces of nature. John’s article, Snow Fall: The Avalanche at Tunnel Creek, won the Pulitzer Prize for feature writing in 2013. He joins host Mike Corey to discuss the events of that fateful morning in February of 2012, the science of avalanches, and what drives extreme athletes to push themselves to the limit.

Check out Snow Fall and John’s other work in his latest book, Sidecountry: Tales of Death and Life From the Back Roads of Sports.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, Prime members, you can listen to Against the Odds ad-free on Amazon Music. Download the app today.
0:06.3	Join Wondry Plus to listen to Against the Odds one week early and ad-free in the Wondry app.
0:12.3	Download the Wondry app in your Apple or Google Play mobile app store today.
0:16.7	From Wondry, I'm Mike Corey, and this is Against the Odds.
0:31.7	On our last episode, we told the story of a group of free skiers who gathered for an
0:39.5	epic run down the fresh powder of tunnel creek, a legendary backcountry route in Washington
0:44.9	States Cascade Mountain Ranch. But on their descent, a massive avalanche sent snow and
0:50.6	rocks churning down the mountain at speeds approaching 70 miles per hour. Of the 16 people who
0:57.2	set out for tunnel creek that day, three would not make it home. Joining us today is New
1:02.3	York Times Sports and Adventure Journalist John Branch. John's article Snowfall, the avalanche
1:08.1	at Tunnel Creek, won the Pulitzer Prize for Feature Writing in 2013. The story also appears
1:14.5	in John's latest book Side Country, Tales of Death and Life from the Backroads of Sports.
1:20.9	John Branch, welcome to Against the Odds. Thank you very much for having me.
1:26.1	First of all, John, calling Snowfall an article doesn't really do it justice. It's a
1:31.5	full on multimedia experience. As you click through the pages, there's snow flurries
1:36.4	across the images. There's interactive diagrams of how avalanches actually form. And the
1:42.4	story itself is told in such a gripping way. So much time must have went into that. And
1:47.2	I know for you, you interviewed the survivors as well as the families of those who didn't
1:52.9	make it. And I guess the question I have first is, how did you first come across this
1:57.0	story?
1:58.0	Yeah, actually that happened in February of 2012, so just about 10 years ago now. And
2:03.5	the Times actually wrote a front page story about that avalanche and another one that
	...

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