This morning I got off my Monday morning flight in Oakland, California and turned on my mobile phone. Once it synced with the wireless network it started going crazy. There were a number of texts and voicemails from home. At first I thought my family was trying to reach me because there was a problem with my oldest daughter's car and they needed my help diagnosing it. Instead it was tragic news that one of my youngest son's teammates had passed away in Soelden, Austria after being caught in an avalanche.
Two promising young skier's lives were cut short today and my heart is heavy after finding out about the passing of Ronnie Berlack and Bryce Astle. I never met or knew Ronnie but Bryce skied with my son at Snowbird and was a great kid. I fear that any attempt to memorialize him will fall well short of what he deserves. The only comfort I can derive from the accident is that Bryce was doing what he loved when he passed away.
When I first heard the news, I wanted to believe it was a mistake. There were six skiers caught in the avalanche, all from the US Ski Team. Four of them survived without any injury. Maybe someone got the names wrong and Bryce was still alive. I got to my office and looked up information on the Internet. There were a number of stories describing what happened. Unfortunately a lot of them were just repeats of the same article. I still held out hope that there was a mistake.
Snowbird is hosting a race this week and my wife was there helping coordinate all of the gate judges and volunteers. She saw how devastated his coaches were when they discovered the news. Soon news trucks were arriving at the mountain to talk with the head coach of the Snowbird ski team. Never mind that he was the "Chief of Race" and had to delegate duties to one of his other senior coaches so he could speak with the press. When my wife related the events on the mountain to me over the phone, it sunk in that Bryce really was gone. He will be missed.
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