these skiers are suffering from medical issues. they began cpr. and unfortunately, they were not able to resuscitate the victims. >> reporter: the last couple of days we've had a lot of snow up in this mountain area and especially here in the cascades, and unfortunately creating very dangerous conditions and of course avalanche conditions. at stevens pass, washington, elizabeth din, abc news. >> and we keep hearing about these dangerous conditions. so far this year there's been 13 deaths due to avalanches across the west. there's this dry base. a lot of, you know, snow coming down at certain times, and there's just not enough to stick there. it's really causing some hazardous conditions. >> the down side of a milder than expected winter here. you wonder too if the area was at such risk of avalanches, even though you're skilled and you're good and you know the area, why take that risk? >> it's scary. it's a risk. definitely a risk. moving on this morning, plenty of questions need to be answered right now after a mid-air collision in northern california. a small plane and a helicopter clipped each other while flying near a small airport that's about halfway between oakland