Sprawled in the dark that day, buried under more than six feet of snow on Mt. Baker, Ian Steger accepted he was about to die. He was disoriented, but he realized he was upside down. The weight of the snow pressing down on his chest was immense. He struggled to breathe. Steger was 40 years old and an athlete, but it didn’t matter. He knew there was no way for him to escape. A good friend of his had died just three months ago when this exact situation occurred. He said the dark thoughts came before the acceptance of his fate. That was until Francis Zuber, a 28-year-old skier who lives in Bellingham, zoomed past and caught a flash of color in his periphery that made him stop. Read more at the link in our bio. #mtbaker #snowboarding #skiing #oregon #rescue #theoregonian