I spent Sunday reading this old NY Times article- http://www.nytimes.com/projects/2012/snow-fall/#/?part=tunnel-creek. It was about to be trashed and the first sentence I was hooked. Reminded me of the summer I read a whole slew of mountaineering stories of climbing 8,000 meter mountains. No Shortcuts To The Top by Ed Viesturs was my favorite-  http://www.edviesturs.com/. This piece reminds me of Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer, the recreation of a tragedy, and what happened- blow by blow. But the article was also a look into a different lifestyle of adventure skying.

Now, I need to read the book.
Just an addendum to this story, the author John Branch was the winner of the 2013 Pulitzer Prize in feature writing for his New York Times narrative "Snow Fall," described as "a multimedia extravaganza about a 2012 avalanche in Washington state" by The San Jose Mercury News.