Avalanches Bury 15

In a bit of sad news from the ski slopes, 15 skiers and snowmobilers in the U.S. and Canada have been killed by avalanches in the past two weeks. Strange weather patterns have brought in unstable layers of snow—essentially, a huge layer of snow that started falling a couple weeks ago is sitting on top of a thin layer that fell in November. "It's like a brick on top of potato chips. And the potato chips can't hold the brick up," said the director of the U.S. Forest Service's National Avalanche Center. He added that while the deaths of snowmobilers exploring the backcountry weren't that unusual, it's the deaths of vacationing skiers that are alarming. From January 2005 to November 2008, four people died in avalanches on U.S. ski slopes. That number is three in the first four weeks of December.