The following story is the reason I ask the million $ question everywhere, which is: “If you were to die today, would you go to heaven or hell?”

Mammoth Lakes—The ski patrol had been at work since first light, inspecting Mammoth Mountain’s reopened runs after a week of heavy snow and blustery winds.

By midmorning Thursday, seven of them had set to work digging out a nearly buried fence erected to keep skiers away from one of the mountain’s dangerous volcanic vents.

Suddenly, the snow beneath them gave way.

Two of the ski-patrollers dropped into a 21-foot maw filled with deadly carbon dioxide fumes and landed on the ground, trapped in a deep hollow. Their cries rose to the top for a few minutes, then stopped.

Two rescuers went in after them and were quickly overcome by the fumes. Others followed. The ordeal lasted barely 20 minutes, but three members of the ski patrol were dead and seven others hospitalized.

-L.A. Times, April 8, 2006

“…man is destined to die once , and after that to face the judgment…” (Hebrews 9:27)