One second eric was fine…

and the next he was up against a tree with snow up to his neck.

Eric always liked to go exploring and doing physical activities in the mountains, and his friends wanted to go on a ski trip, so they got their stuff packed up and went on their way. They went to a place in the mountains called Vance’s Cabin. A pretty big cabin that is located on a timbered mountain side near Tennessee pass. The cabin was constructed in 1981 and was completed in 1988. It has 6 beds upstairs in a loft and 10 bunks beds downstairs. The cabin is located in Colorado near the town of Leadville. Once they got to the cabin they liked it and thought it was pretty cool and they were tired so they went to sleep.

The next morning Eric and Derek wanted to start skiing before anyone got up so they could get some skiing in before they met up with the rest of their friends to ski together. They got some equipment and they started walking to a spot as they started climbing they tested the ground to see if it was safe. It seemed alright so they continued to the top of the mountain. Once they got to the top of the mountain they looked at the line and it looked ok so they decided to drop in, but they didn’t go up the other side so they didn’t know what to expect.

As they got farther down they heard a bad noise that meant the snow could start an avalanche. Right after they heard they noise they saw a little bit of snow start to slide down. A little bit later they heard it again so they decided to go across they line the came down because it was safer. It started getting dark so they were getting a bit worried they weren’t prepared food wise for that night they only had a granola bar each. They would have had to dig a snow fort in side of the hill.

They were just about to the top of the crest when and all of a sudden Derek looked at him and yelled ”Avalanche!“

Eric looked back and he could see the snow starting to fall down the hill. Eric tried to do everything he could to stay up and luckily the snow stopped falling and he got pushed against a tree, the snow went all the way up to his neck.

Derek had managed to get out of the way so now he was digging Eric out of the snow. It took about 40 minutes to get him out now they were all freaking out because they weren't even at the base of their decent yet and everybody else was waiting for them at their destination. They start finding all their stuff they get over the crest they make it to the basin and now they’re looking at their final ascent out. It’s really steep, so steep that they have to do switchbacks to get up the hill. But it was to steep so they had to put the skis on their backs and climb up it.