"Switzerland, I thought, would be safe," writes Los Angeles-based photographer Mark Ralston, as heavy snowfalls once again blanket the Alps. "For the past three years, vacation trips with my family have been disasters. Literally. Natural disasters, to be precise, as we’ve been hit by typhoons on trips to Taiwan and Japan. So this year we decided to play it safe. Switzerland. No typhoon danger there. Just great skiing in the picturesque Alps."

"We forgot about the avalanches."