“Wait a sec,” I replied. “Let me think. Look, I have another question. What happens to all the stuff that gets rolled up into an avalanche? You know, besides sticks, rocks, and trees? Say a person goes down and you find his body without his skis. Do you ever find the skis? In the spring, maybe?”
“Hmm.” The poor security woman tried to sound as if she were pondering my question, but her dubious tone said she thought I was some kind of nut. “Well …”
“Look,” I said patiently. “The snow slides down. Say it knocks down a house. Do the chimney bricks and furniture end up at the bottom of the hill? How and when do you clean up the debris left by an avalanche?”
“Actually, in an avalanche everything gets thrown all over the place.”
“So how does the debris get picked up?” I persisted. “I mean, n
