Last Summer(61)

They meet Scott and another guide for breakfast, and after, they sit through what Ella believes is the longest, most detailed safety presentation she’s ever heard. It lasts an hour, covering everything from loading and unloading from the helicopter, skiing conditions, avalanche preparedness, and the importance of listening to their guides. Their word is final. Disregarding the rules means an immediate extraction from the mountain and return to base without a refund. Each guide is trained as an EMT and every skier is outfitted with a radio to communicate with their guides.

When it comes time to load into the helicopter, Ella sits up front between Cam, the pilot, and Trey, one of their guides. In the rear are Scott, Nathan, and a Canadian couple from Whistler who are over the moon to be skiing alongside Nathan Donovan. Nathan graciously poses for pictures before they board the helicopter. Scott loads the skis and poles into a cargo carrier that looks like a rescue basket attached above the landing skid. He climbs aboard and they’re off, lifting, up and over a stark white landscape.

The ride is bumpy but the views are magnificent, the mountains majestic, and Ella can’t help but feel the skiers’ excitement. Her heart races and palms sweat as they climb in elevation, following the lay of the land as it rises from the channel and up. Ella smiles broadly, thrilled she can witness Nathan in action. She waves at him over her shoulder and he gives her a thumbs-up.

Basically, the helicopter is a chairlift. The first drop is eight minutes from base, and each successive drop is a two-to four-minute flight apart until they return to the lodge. The entire trip takes no more than ninety minutes. Depending how things go, Scott hopes they can get in seven rides. That’s seven landings on various ridges—which aren’t true landings, but a hover inches above the surface—and seven pickups with fly time in between.

Skiers will ride downhill one at a time, from safe zone to safe zone, until they meet up at the pickup zone, or PZ, as Cam calls it, at the end of the run. Scott will lead, followed by Nathan, then the Canadian couple. Trey will bring up the rear.

After the first drop-off, Cam comes over the com. He and Ella are the only two with headsets in the helicopter so that they can communicate over the whir of the helicopter’s rudder and blades while the others ski.

“We’ll do a flyby so you can watch.”

The heli dives down the mountainside and Ella’s stomach shoots up into her throat. But she waves her thanks to Cam and gets her camera ready.

As Scott explained during the safety meeting, the skiers take off one at a time. Scott descends first, cutting across the pristine mountainside, digging his poles into the fresh snowpack. He’s fast. Full speed ahead, until he skids to a stop at the first safety zone, a spot about one-third of the way down.

Nathan follows, full throttle. Ella’s heart pounds in her throat. A fresh layer of nervous perspiration blooms across the back of her neck, yet she has her camera ready and takes a ton of photos.

When Nathan reaches Scott, the Canadian couple follows, then Trey, until eventually, they all reach the PZ. Scott comes over the com, giving Cam the signal they’re ready for a pickup.

Nathan loads first and their eyes meet. She can tell he wants to tell her how epically awesome it was, but his words would only get lost in the noise of the copter. Instead, they share a smile. He’ll tell her all about it when they get back to base.

They follow this pattern for another three drops, until they reach the highest ridge of the day, where they’ll be able to cut lines in a sixteen-hundred-foot run at almost a fifty-degree angle. After they unload at the LZ, landing zone, Scott gives the signal and Cam lifts off. They fly down the mountainside and cut a wide circle so that Ella can watch. Scott takes off, and when he reaches the first safety zone, she has her camera ready.

Nathan descends the mountainside, following Scott’s trail. Ella lifts her camera and the good vibe inside the helicopter plummets. Cam swears.

Ella lowers her camera and looks around, thinking something’s wrong with the helicopter. But Cam’s attention isn’t on the controls. It’s locked outside.

Ella looks in the same direction and gasps. Her chest clenches as her mind tries to catch up with what she’s seeing. Scott, skiing for his life, with Nathan right behind. The entire mountainside has ripped out from under them. Avalanche. And the wave of snowpack is gaining on Nathan.

Scott, who has a couple hundred yards on Nathan, quickly skis out of the avalanche’s path. He radios in to Cam. “You seeing this?”

“Yep. Coming in.” Cam closes in on the mountain, ready for the pickup when they’ll need it. “Ski, you bastard,” Cam mutters into the com. There isn’t anything he or Ella can do but watch in silent horror as Nathan tries to outski the rushing snow.

Ella realizes that watching an avalanche as it’s happening is a whole different game than playing a YouTube video where she can speed ahead to skip the horrific parts or stop it and walk away. She couldn’t look away even if she tried. She can only watch, stunned speechless, as Nathan points his skis downhill and furiously digs in his poles to get away. But the avalanche consumes him, and suddenly, he’s tumbling, flipping head over skis, over and over and over.

The last thing Ella hears before Nathan disappears under a white sheet are Scott’s clipped words over the com. “He’s heavy. Going down hard.”



“You keep that up and we won’t get any sleep.”