The Way Out: A True Story of Survival in the Heart of the Rockies – A Powerful Investigation of Tragedy, Trauma, and Redemption

In January 2017, fifteen-year-old Cole Walters-Schaler and Brett Beasley, a Forest Service ranger in his mid-forties, set out for a quick ski run from their cabin outside Salida, Colorado during a group alpine getaway. A sudden blizzard transformed their half-hour outing into a thirty-hour survival ordeal that ended in tragedy. Devon O'Neil's account reconstructs those critical hours and their aftermath, examining how the incident shook the tight-knit mountain community and raised questions about guilt, redemption, and the human draw to wilderness adventure. Drawing on firsthand interviews with those closest to the tragedy, O'Neil explores what it means to survive when others do not, and how a community processes such loss. The book includes 12 black-and-white personal photographs and investigates the allure of mountain environments alongside the lasting impact of trauma on survivors and their communities.