When Michael Harris set out for a day of skiing at Stevens Pass in Washington State on February 26, he had no idea that a single decision to shift a few feet across the slope would result in him being trapped beneath an avalanche for over four hours. What followed was a remarkable story of survival that combined modern technology, a wife’s intuition, and desperate prayers answered.
Harris had been skiing Big Chief Bowl for most of the day, following another skier down the mountain. When he moved approximately 10 to 15 feet across the bowl searching for fresh snow, disaster struck.
“That’s when everything changed for me,” he said.
Trapped beneath the snow
Snow slabs fractured above and below Harris, triggering an avalanche that swept him down the mountain. Drawing on his avalanche safety training, he attempted to swim with his arms to stay close to the surface. His efforts partially succeeded—he ended up buried under several feet of snow but with a beach ball-sized air pocket directly in front of his face.
However, the rest of his body was completely immobilized. “The sensation was being encased in cement,” he said. His Apple Watch was on his wrist, and his iPhone sat in his jacket pocket, both just inches away but completely unreachable.
Trapped and unable to signal for help, Harris turned to prayer. “I said Heavenly Father I am in a bad way,” he recalled. “Please let someone know how to find me because I knew that if I was fully buried there was probably no signs that I was there.”
A wife’s intuition leads to rescue
At their home in Bothell, Penny Harris began experiencing a growing sense of unease. Her husband wasn’t responding to calls or texts, and something felt wrong.
“You get a feeling something’s just not right,” she said. “I followed my intuition, saw his location, checked it a couple times and saw it wasn’t moving.”
Penny immediately contacted ski patrol and began driving to the resort. She used the Find My app on her phone to show rescuers the exact location where Michael’s signal had remained stationary on the mountain. Ski patrol deployed to Big Chief Bowl with an avalanche rescue dog.
They reached him four hours after he was buried. According to avalanche survival statistics, chances of survival decrease dramatically after just 15 minutes, making Harris’s survival extraordinary.
Against all odds
When the rescue team excavated Harris from the snow, they were astonished to find him still conscious. His body temperature had plummeted into the 70s. He was transported to the hospital suffering from hypothermia, pneumonia, a lung contusion, kidney injuries, and a broken leg requiring surgical intervention with seven screws, a plate, and a bone graft.
Medical staff began referring to him as “Miracle Mike the Avalanche Man.”
During her frantic drive to the resort, Penny prayed continuously. “Not now, now is not the time. I need him, we need him, wherever he is, whatever mercy you’ve got be with him, I’m coming,” she cried out.
The road to recovery
Harris’s daughter Lauren posted on a GoFundMe page that her father faces 14 to 16 weeks of recovery. “It is a true miracle that he survived and didn’t sustain life altering or life threatening injuries,” she wrote. “I have been thanking God since the incident that he is still here with us.” The fundraiser has collected over $30,000 to assist with medical expenses, as Harris is his family’s sole income provider.
Buried beneath the snow, Harris said thoughts of his family prevented him from succumbing to despair. “They were the only thing I thought about.”
Harris hopes his experience will inspire others. “If my story can make people want to drive toward better connection, think about their families different and think about how they connect with God in their life, then it’s all worth it for me.”
The couple’s decision to share their location with each other through their phones—a simple technological feature many overlook—proved lifesaving. That small act of transparency and connection made it possible for Penny to locate her husband when every minute counted.
