One type of figurative language Branch uses is personification. As the avalanche moved down Tunnel Creek, Branch associated the "soft, fresh snow" with becoming "the enemy" and said, "It [the snow] swallows its victims." It doesn’t spit them out.” The snow threatened to bury the skiers, and it managed to bury some skiers and kill three. The personification of snow truly shows readers how a pleasant ski excursion instantly turned into a dangerous and deadly obstacle course. Along with this, similes are frequently used in the article. When Branch wrote about Elyse Saugstad, a professional skier, caught in the avalanche, he explained how the snow was "dragging her [Elyse Saugstad] down like a riptide" and she was "tumbling in a crowded canyon like a steel ball falling through pins.” in a pachinko machine. The similes show a visual of how Elyse was dragged down the mountain by the avalanche. On top of that, the article uses metaphors, such as when Branch describes the avalanche as "the size of over a thousand cars rolling down the mountain and weighing millions of pounds." This is a further description of the power and horror of the avalanche for the