readersdigest.co.in 81Drama In Real Lifechopper’s nose down and began sli-
cing through the kilometre and a half
of clear blue sky that lay between him
and the cloud of snow dissipating in
the distance. Meanwhile, Campos and
two other boarders, Mark Tremblay
and John Jackson, both also featured
in the film, made their way as fast as
they could toward Fitzpatrick, who
was still standing in shock. Soon they
were all together, calculating the risks
associated with their own descents.
Poole was coming in fast but
already feared the worst. He’d been
on the scene of Korthals’ death just
weeks earlier, hovering overhead
as rescuers struggled to locate her
remains in the debris of the avalanche
that had buried her. The odds were
grim: Only 47 per cent of avalanche
victims survive. And 90 per cent of
those who lived were dug out within
the first 10 minutes. Crouch’s chances
were dwindling fast.T
he pilot could see the
runout from the avalanche
that had been triggered by
the broken cornice, but there was
no sign of Crouch. And he could
hear Campos on the radio, asking
for eyes on the mountainside. The
boarders desperately wanted to help
in the search, but were afraid of
hangfire—residual snowfall that often
breaks off in the minutes after an
initial avalanche.
As he eyed the debris, Poole looked
for traces of anything—a glove,
goggles, a twisted body. It didn’t
take long before he thought he saw
something. The tip of a snowboard,
maybe. He locked its location in
his mind, quickly mapping a route
down from the top for the other
snowboarders. He radioed directions
to Campos, then spun the chopper
toward the object in the snow.
A clock was ticking insideOn a neighbouring
peak, helicopter
pilot Josh Poole
could see a cloud of
snow rising up near
where he’d dropped
off the two
snowboarders.