Wonderful intriguing tale. The setting is excellent for an adventure.

One of the models to explore the future was called "three P's and a W," meaning a possible, probable, and preferred future, plus wildcards, i.e., unexpected, seemingly improbable, but consequential events of both a positive and negative nature.

This is an interesting proposition. Predicting the future is a rather difficult thing, especially when it comes to the finer details. For example, in the 70s and 80s, some people broadly predicted the computer revolution, but not the finer details like smartphones, blockchain tech, and social media. But there is still a pattern in all the Chaos. That's the thing about Chaos, its about complex yet predictable behaviour. We just don't have the computer power to take into account every little variable affecting a system. But let's say that a civilization is a million years ahead of us technologically. Would they be able to predict the future with precision?

"But the others! The other people!" shouted Mrs Weihrich. "Surely some are dead and buried!".

"Yes! That will be so!", Kruzmaka replied to her no less excitedly. "But not us! We drew our wild card!" he laughed.

Our alien friend is being coy with Mrs. Weihrich. Was the card really wild? The avalance was the pseudo-random initial condition, and everything else flowed from that single point of instability into a cascade of predictable and unpredictable events. Based on observations, such as the desperate skier landing near the terrace, and past knowledge of the behaviour of avalanches, the pair were able to extrapolate the probable futures of the avalanche (death, injury, or safety). So, they got on the jet-ski because they thought it possible to use it as a means of escape towards the preferred future (safety). So, it seems all three Ps and W were at play. The adventureous pair used this system to 'design' their future or "create" it. Maybe God does play dice with the universe, we just haven't figured out the rules of the game. ;)

This is a fun read that got my neurons crackling. Now I'm dreaming of adventures in the Alps.