Letter: Decision making can save your life vaildaily.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from vaildaily.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Be safe in backcountry
Since late January, there have been 22 avalanche deaths in America across 16 incidents in nine states, including here in Park City. It’s been one of the most deadly periods in recorded history.
It is absolutely heartbreaking to see people get killed doing something they love. It makes these deaths very hard to wrap your head around.
I still feel that way about our son, Ronnie Berlack, and his U.S. Ski Team teammate, Bryce Astle, who died in a 2015 avalanche on a glorious powder day in Austria. They didn’t have the avalanche forecast and they didn’t know the dangers when they wandered off piste.
Letter: Decision making can save your life steamboatpilot.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from steamboatpilot.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Ridgelines
A composite image of Ronnie Berlack, left, and Bryce Astle, aspiring ski racers who died in an avalanche in 2015.
Courtesy image
The incessant beeping of my iPhone jogged me awake. As a communications professional, those nighttime calls could mean a joyous race victory or something else. I knew we had no events. So it couldn’t be good.
It was Monday morning, Jan. 5, 2015. I glanced at the clock it was a little after 2 a.m. Our U.S. Ski Team chief of sport, Luke Bodensteiner, was on the line. He was calm. But his news was grave. About 30 minutes earlier in a snowfield high up in the alpine peaks of Sölden, Austria, an avalanche had swept away a group of U.S. Ski Team development athletes. Two had still not been found.
CNN New Day January 6, 2015 11:37:30 archive.org - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from archive.org Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.