Two skiers who survived an avalanche in Utah last week have described their desperate attempt to save others buried under snow. The skiers, named in a Utah Avalanche Center report as Chris and Steve, escaped being fully buried and went looking for the three other skiers in their group. As they dug, they freed and saved two members of a second group of skiers that had been buried. Finally they found Chris’ girlfriend, Sarah Moughamian, 29, a marketing researcher, but they were too late, and Chris’s CPR attempts to revive Moughamian were unsuccessful. Four people died in the avalanche.

“Their rescue efforts were top-notch, and they knew how to perform companion rescue quickly and efficiently,” the report says. “They did the absolute best anyone could do with six full [snow] burials.”