Dying can come quietly on a sunny day. It’s April 4, 2023, when Celina Weber is crossing a deep snow slope within the mountains above Verbier in Valais along with her snowboard. She hears a muffled noise, just like the pop of a flip-top bottle being opened underneath a wool blanket. In all probability not a second later, the blanket of snow beneath her ft breaks into items, tearing the bottom away from her. Celina Weber is aware of instantly that she is in the midst of one avalanche. She is certain she is about to die.
It ought to have been her day. Weber, then 23, is on his approach to the start line of a contest. She is just a few factors in need of being promoted to the Freeride World Tour. The world’s finest snow sports activities athletes compete right here, collaborating in off-piste competitions to be able to draw essentially the most lovely traces potential within the snow and showcase jumps over rocks. Weber ought to begin first. However then the avalanche comes.