captioning funded by cbs and ford. we go further, so you can. >> pelley: this is the main polish station where five to ten trains a day escape russia's war on ukraine. each arrival brings 2,000 women and children compressed into standing room only. we met the trains and heard the stories. >> ( translated ): the russians are saying they're bombing only military bases. it's all a lie. they're bombing civilians they're killing children. ( ticking ) >> we mapped together the cases in purple. >> what is the current state of the pandemic? the director of the c.d.c. showed us how they are tracking

variants. >> we sequence enough to be able to detect a new variant with 99% confidence. >> lapook: and are you getting any kind of a hint that there's some new variant of concern? >> no. not right now. nope. i mean, we're tracking things but there's nothing that appears to be, you know, the next omicron. ( ticking ) >> three, two, one... >> jacob smith drops into the big couloir-- a narrow, rock- walled, 1,400-foot chute. that dot is him making his way turn by turn. a wrong move can be catastrophic. the run has a 50 degree slope, which means if you slip down the couloir, there's little chance you can stop yourself. we thought you should see this. because he cannot. jacob is legally blind. ( ticking ) >> i'm lesley stahl. >> i'm bill whitaker. >> i'm anderson cooper.

>> i'm sharyn alfonsi. >> i'm jon wertheim. >> i'm scott pelley. those stories, tonight, on "60 minutes." ( ticking ) plain aspirin could be hurting your stomach. vazalore 325 liquid-filled aspirin capsule is clinically shown in a 7 day study to cause fewer ulcers than immediate release aspirin. vazalore. the first liquid-filled aspirin capsules...amazing! [upbeat music playing] ♪♪ welcome to home sweet weathertech home. a place where dirt stays outside. and floors are protected. where standing is comfortable. and water never leaves a mark. it's spotless under the sink. and kids can be kids. order your american made products at weathertech.com.

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...and don't take it if you're on dialysis. taking jardiance with a sulfonylurea or insulin may cause low blood sugar. lower a1c and lower risk of a fatal heart attack? we're on it. we're on it. with jardiance. ask your doctor about jardiance. >> pelley: millions of civilians are fleeing the russian invasion of ukraine. today, a family was killed by russian shelling. the deaths were reported by a "new york times" photographer who tweeted an image that flashed around the world. a warning, the picture is graphic.

photographer lynsey addario tweeted, "at least three members of a family of four were killed." it was the mother and son and daughter. at the time addario was there, ukrainian soldiers were trying to save the father. also, tonight, a pentagon official tells "60 minutes" that russia's assault on the capital city, kyiv, is stalled because of fierce resistance and because the russians are running short of food and fuel. they expected kyiv to capitulate in three to five days. this is day 11. also, the u.s. is working on an exchange whereby poland would donate russian-built fighter jets to ukraine-- the kind the ukrainians know how to fly-- and the u.s. would replace poland's jets with american planes. today, the united nations said 1.5 million refugees have escaped. many are on evacuation trains arriving in poland. the first stop is a rail station

with 150 years of history. the tracks at przemysl bore inconceivable loss in the 20th century. now, in the 21st, misery has arrived again, unscheduled, on platform four. at the end of 21 hours-- after 450 miles of war-- something that looked like hope shined atop an old engine pulling families across the new border of the free world. ( brakes squeal )h n where five to ten trains a day escape the war. on each, 2,000 women and children are compressed into standing room only. before the doors can open, they reach for water lifted to the windows. this train fled the russian army closing in on the southern port city of odessa.

after a day and a night fearing that the train would be attacked, they descended into safety on platform number four. overcome with gratitude, alessa told us, "this is our first time in poland. we could see people waiving and greeting us from their homes, it's wonderful." that was the greeting of przemysl, poland-- a town with a thousand years of history. it's had many masters, including russia. but today, przemysl is eight miles from ukraine's border, the first stop on the flight to freedom. >> wojciech bakun: they are in safe place, that's the main thing. >> pelley: wojciech bakun is the mayor. do you know how many refugees have come to your town at this point? >> bakun: i think it's about 70,000 to 80,000, maybe, maybe more. >> pelley: how many citizens do

you have in this city? >> bakun: 60,000, so we have nearly double, nearly double our city. >> pelley: but "double" is not a burden-- not yet. those who left behind homes, husbands, careers and schools are welcomed with soup, coffee, coats against the gloomy 30 degrees, and free phone cards to connect with the trouble at home. on arrival, they're free to travel anywhere they want. some reach for family or friends already living outside ukraine. but, inside the przemysl station, opened in 1860, those with no destination fill every hall and room. they rest on all they have left in the world-- a light load-- but for the burden of memory. >> ( speaking ukrainian ) >> pelley: "there were so many people," mersanna told us. "so many children crying all the time.

my family spent four nights in a bomb shelter. everyone is so scared." what should the people of the world know about what's happening in ukraine? "the russians are saying they're bombing only military bases. it's all a lie. they're bombing civilians they're killing children." >> ( speaking ukrainian ) >> pelley: irina told us, "we came from kyiv, they're bombing civilians there. my son is in the military. he has kids and they can't leave." that's the reason nearly all the refugees are women and children. ukraine is not allowing men between the ages of 18 and 60 to leave the country. what did you see in kyiv? "i can't talk about it, i'm sorry." and so she passed our question to her 15-year-old

granddaughter, nastia. "we heard lots of explosions, rockets, and shelling." how did you get away? >> ( speaking ukrainian ) "we took the first train available it was full. there was no place to move. they announced four times to lie on the floor and cover yourself. then the train stopped and the lights went out. they warned us about gunfire." ukraine has fought the russians fiercely and i wonder what you think of those who've been left behind, who are still fighting? >> ( speaking ukrainian ) "our people are very brave. we will win, glory to ukraine." but glory is likely to be measured not in victory but in how long defeat can be delayed. this weekend, russian troops

attacked in the north, south, and east and captured the largest nuclear power plant in europe. but what began as a blitz has mired into a siege. this miles-long column of russian forces stalled for days outside the capital, kyiv. that city of three million has gone underground. there are no reliable counts of causalities. in russia, vladimir putin led his people into a new dark age. isolated like a pathogen, russia was quarantined from transportation, business, and media. friday, putin made reporting on ukraine a crime with a penalty of 15 years. russia's last independent media closed. >> the result of the vote is... >> pelley: thursday, at the united nations, an ovation overwhelmed the reading of the writing on the wall.

>> the result... ( applause ) >> pelley: 141 nations condemned the invasion. four joined russia-- north korea, belarus, eritrea, and syria-- what could fairly be called the alliance of despots. the united states and nato allies rushed anti-tank and anti-aircraft missiles to ukraine while, at the same time, the alliance said it would not fight on the ground or in the air. that is not to say there aren't at least a few fresh troops on the way. at the polish border, we found ukrainians, living outside the country, who were headed home to join the fight. >> ( speaking ukrainian ) >> pelley: this man told us, "we are going back because our country is in danger." what do you intend to do there? >> ( speaking ukrainian ) "we will defend our land, and

our families." can you defeat the russians? yaroslav told us, "we simply want to live in peace. we don't want anyone to tell us how to live." also returning was a man named sergei, who is not the type to part with more words than he has to. why are you headed back to ukraine? "we have a war." why do you feel that you have to go back to ukraine? "if not me, who else?" i wish you all the luck in the world. now, listen to his two parting words. >> slava ukraini. >> pelley: slava ukraini, "glory to ukraine," is a special insult to russia. the soviets once banned the phrase and so, made it immortal. >> zelensky: slava ukraini. >> pelley: it's the parting shot

in the "never give in" selfies of the ukrainian president. tough men of few words are being inspired by a leader who was once ukraine's top comedian. but, this past week, volodymyr zelensky turned out to be more churchill than chaplin. >> i am really so, so proud that we have this kind of president that he didn't leave us, he's staying with his people, he's fighting there. >> pelley: when we met olga bilous, she'd been waiting two days for her parents to bring her 14-year-old daughter to poland. >> it's so encouraging, and it gives you, you know, inner strength, and i'm so happy. >> pelley: you're proud to be ukrainian. >> i am proud, i am proud to be ukrainian, of course. >> pelley: ukraine is about the size of texas with some of the richest soil on earth and 44 million people, but it has never known peace for long. these families are descendants of misery.

in 1933, more than three million ukrainians died in a famine engineered by stalin. then, five million were murdered by nazis. the polish compassion we saw on the platforms may grow from shared experience. no one really notices anymore, but outside the station we saw a modest memorial to a monstrous crime. it recalls when many thousands of poles were packed into freight cars at the station, on the order of stalin, and shipped to siberia. maybe empathy is why so many poles took time off to volunteer. eliasz and daniel dyrov are brothers. in my experience, refugees from war are almost never welcome in neighboring countries. and i wonder why poland is doing this? >> we are first to help, and we are welcome our ukrainian brothers.

and when i am praying to god, i am grateful to god, and i say thank you god for giving me the opportunity to help these people. >> this disaster become to be not only a disaster in ukraine, it becomes to be a disaster of european cities because all these ukraine refugees, they need shelter, they need medical care, and many different things. so thanks god, polish nation support now the ukrainian nation. >> pelley: krzys butra is a fire fighter taking sick leave. he helps load supplies onto the trains heading back to ukraine. >> and when they're going back, we put them medical, we put them everything what we have, put them to the train because they don't have any shops. the don't have... and sometimes they don't have even town because the bombs come and they don't have nothing. >> pelley: so the trains go back with food and supplies? medical supplies? >> yes, yes. everything. everything. >> pelley: "everything," including these ukrainian men headed to the train platform, who, like the ones we met at the

border, are going home to fight. late last week, the european union granted refugees blanket permission to settle in any of the 27 e.u. nations for up to three years. those crowding przemysl are already moving on to shelters in cities farther down the line. major wojciech bakun told us poland is making room for another historic catastrophe. >> pelley: what happens to the people who have nowhere to go? >> bakun: oh, we prepare lot of places. i think in poland we have about two million places where every person can stay for long time, not for a few days, for long time, for months or if he or she needs, for years. >> pelley: two million is half the refugees the united nations predicts. four million would make this

europe's worst humanitarian disaster since world war ii. in an exodus without timetables, how long ukrainians will have to endure isn't known. theirs is a future they cannot see. only one thing is certain: on platform four, another train is coming. ( ticking ) >> more on the arduous journey to flee ukraine... >> pelley: what was your journey like? at 60minutesovertime.com. sponsored by cologuard. homegrown tomatoes...nice. i want to feel in control of my health, so i do what i can. what about screening for colon cancer? when caught in early stages it's more treatable. i'm cologuard. i'm noninvasive and i detect altered dna in your stool to find 92% of colon cancers, even in early stages. early stages? yep, it's for people 45 plus at average risk for colon cancer, not high risk.

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side effects include nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea, which can lead to dehydration, and may worsen kidney problems. the choices you make can help control your a1c. ask your doctor about once-weekly trulicity. >> sharyn alfonsi: now, dr. jon lapook on assignment for "60 minutes." >> dr. jon lapook: in his state of the union address on tuesday, president biden struck a cautiously optimistic note about

the covid-19 pandemic as it enters its third year. the white house followed up with a detailed strategy for the pandemic's next phase, including vaccinating here and abroad, testing, antiviral treatments, improving the quality of indoor air, expanding the nation's capacity to track and treat new variants and supporting people with long term consequences of covid. the centers for disease control has also issued new guidelines suggesting most americans can take off their masks. we set out, in the wake of the state of the union, to assess the state of the pandemic with some of the country's foremost researchers, both at the centers for disease control in atlanta and at the university of pittsburgh medical center. that's where virologist paul duprex alerted "60 minutes" last year about the dangers of coronavirus variants, well before delta and omicron battered the united states. it's been about one year since we last spoke for "60 minutes."

is the pandemic over? >> paul duprex: the pandemic is not over. but we're in a very different place today than we were one year ago. >> lapook: how so? >> duprex: there have been multiple more variants. but we're moving in a direction where there are not as many people who are in hospital because of the disease. and we've got many more people vaccinated. and we understand a lot about first shots, second shots, and now boosters. so, it's a totally different landscape. >> lapook: duprex, born in northern ireland, is head of the center for vaccine research at the university of pittsburgh medical center. he's hopeful the virus will continue to mutate into a milder form. is it possible that the coronaviruses that now cause the common cold long ago began as fiercely, as dangerous, as deadly as sars-cov-2 and that, over time, it became weaker and weaker? now we have the common cold? >> duprex: oh, i would say it's more than possible.

i would say it's very likely. but we just have to wait and see where the virus ends up, and that's just good science. scientists follow the virus, keep a close eye on it, and we understand how that virus changes over time and where it will go. >> lapook: keeping a close eye on the virus, at the centers for disease control, is director dr. rochelle walensky, the former chief of infectious diseases at harvard-affiliated massachusetts general hospital. she was tapped by president biden to lead an agency struggling to communicate effectively with the public. this past week, dr. walensky took us behind the scenes at the agency that's been fighting infectious diseases since it was formed in the 1940's to combat malaria. >> rochelle walensky: so here we are in our genomic sequencing lab. >> lapook: this is the first time you've allowed a film crew back here? >> justin lee: that is accurate. >> lapook: justin lee leads the genomic sequencing laboratory

and showed us how positive covid test samples from all over the world are processed so genetic information can be extracted and analyzed in this sequencer to look for new variants of the virus. monitors show and tell showing variant c.d.c. is tracking >> lee: this was our most recent sequencing run. each square represents one person's covid test sample. >> lapook: and about what percentage are omicron? >> lee: from the u.s. samples that are collected recently, 99% are omicron. >> lapook: wow. so out of 96 wells, only one of them is yellow? only one is delta? >> lee: only one is delta. >> lapook: since first being identified in the united states just three months ago, omicron and its sub-variants have almost entirely replaced the delta variant, which had caused more severe disease. earlier in the pandemic, the c.d.c. was lagging behind in genetic sequencing. now hundreds of millions of dollars in emergency funding have helped create a nationwide early detection system. >> walensky: we want to be able to detect about 0.1% of any new variant if it comes into this country with 99% certainty. >> lapook: and are you getting any kind of a hint that there's some new variant of concern? >> lee: no. not right now.

nope. i mean, we're tracking things but there's nothing that appears to be, you know, the next omicron. >> walensky: we breathe a heavy sigh of relief when we don't see anything. >> lapook: but no threat is too small. in this covid-19 briefing, we witnessed dr. walensky ask staff for an update on what some are nicknaming "deltacron," a genetic hybrid of the delta and omicron variants. it's only been found rarely in the u.s. and dr. walensky says the c.d.c. does not consider it a threat at this time. >> walensky: anything more on deltacron? >> dr. mahon: no. i mean, it's out there. >> walensky: but we're still in the, like, handful of cases, not in the hundreds of thousands of cases. okay. >> mahon: yes, yeah, yeah. yeah. >> lapook: recently, news about the pandemic in the united states has been encouraging. hospitalizations, cases, and deaths are dropping, and effective antiviral treatments are becoming much more available for those who do get sick. dr. walensky has announced a new set of guidelines, meaning, right now, about 90% of

americans can choose to drop their masks. you hear the word "endemic" a lot. >> walensky: um... >> lapook: what exactly does that mean? >> walensky: you're at a steady state. your pandemic or your disease is neither increasing nor decreasing. >> lapook: so will there be a moment where it's at such a low level that, even though it's still on every continent, say, we're not calling it a pandemic anymore? >> walensky: i think we'll get there. you know i do think that we will get to a place with this disease where we live with a relatively low level all year long and that maybe we have some surges during respiratory virus season. those surges are annoying and for some, they will likely be tragic. but they are not to the tune of two and 3,000 deaths a day. i think we live that way with influenza. >> lapook: dr. walensky has learned to be cautious after telling fully vaccinated americans back in may 2021 they could take off their masks. >> walensky: once you are fully vaccinated, two weeks after your last dose, you can shed your

mask. >> lapook: but the party only lasted a few months. new c.d.c. research during a surge of the delta variant forced her to tell the country that masks should go back on. >> walensky: i will never forget the gut punch on that friday night when i first saw the data out of barnstable county, massachusetts, that demonstrated that there were vaccinated people that were transmitting it to other people. we said, "we have to put our masks back on." >> lapook: do you think communicating, "we don't know," was done well enough to the public from the very beginning? >> walensky: you know... ( sigh ) >> lapook: or, "it may change." >> walensky: there were so many times where we were optimistic. there were so many times where we didn't know. and since my getting here what i said is, "we're going to lead with the science." the implication was that science was black and white, and in fact, in an ever-evolving virus, and a two-year-long pandemic, the science isn't always black and white. it's-- it's oftentimes shades of

gray. >> lapook: but from the point of view of the taxicab driver who drove me here a couple days ago, he remembers it as, "they told us you could take your mask off and then they changed their mind." >> walensky: right. >> lapook: one recent poll showed that less than half the american public trusts the c.d.c. when it comes to advice about the virus. do you take it personally? >> walensky: i certainly don't love to see statistics like that. but i think they will get better as we emerge from this pandemic. >> lapook: during her 13 months on the job, dr. walensky has been on a mission to improve public trust in the agency. she's done more than 90 press conferences and hundreds of interviews. she told us she wants americans to know the crucial work the c.d.c.'s 13,000 scientists, medical professionals, and public health workers do around the world. >> walensky: do they know that we deliver antiretroviral therapy to 12 million people around the world every year? >> lapook: with aids? >> walensky: with aids.

no. do they know that we're working to eradicate polio? do they know that when somebody gets sick with salmonella, that we look for the source? do they know that we're responsible for you know, opioid statistics in the country? >> lapook: dr. walensky took us into the c.d.c.'s emergency operations center, a command post normally packed during disease outbreaks. i hear phrases like "command center," "deployments," "task forces." it's kind of got a military sound to it. it feels like it's war. >> walensky: we have to act like this is war. we are at war against this virus. >> lapook: a top priority has been improving the collection and analysis of data. dr. walensky showed us how, at the beginning of the pandemic, fewer than 200 hospitals, clinics, and doctors' offices could send automated information on things like diagnoses, outcomes, and immunizations. how could you do your work with so little data? >> walensky: boy, did we have to work hard to put the pedal to the metal and create the infrastructure. we've built that in the last

year. so we now have in december of 2020, we had 6,500 facilities. and end of last year, we had over 10,000 facilities, and we have more work to do. >> lapook: dr. walensky says they can now better use data to gain insight into things like the effectiveness of vaccinations. >> walensky: here we're looking at deaths. and we can map it towards the unvaccinated versus in the people who've received two doses of a vaccine, versus people who've been boosted. and so you see this massive difference between vaccinated and unvaccinated. >> lapook: it's kind of stunning. >> walensky: it is stunning. 41 times the risk of dying from covid-19 in december of 2021 if you are unvaccinated compared to if you are boosted. >> lapook: virologist paul duprex used this animation to show how the body creates more and more immune cells with each shot of vaccine. that's why almost every immunization we get, like measles and polio, takes more than one dose to be long- lasting.

>> duprex: there are lymph nodes all across the body. when we get immunized, the vaccine is taken up by the lymph nodes in the armpit. these white cells are produced. these white memory cells patrol the body. and whenever the second immunization occurs, they remember. they explode in the lymph nodes. and those memory cells are able to produce antibodies but they're also able to recognize infected cells and take those cells out really quickly, before those cells start producing more virus in the body. >> lapook: so months or even years after a vaccination these memory cells may be there kind of asleep. >> duprex: but with one click of an infection, they wake up and they explode into action. >> lapook: and with each vaccination, the amount of immunity goes up? >> duprex: yes. you can think of it like a staircase. the first vaccination, we're up one step.

the second vaccination, maybe we get to the third step. and the boost, we're up at step ten. so we get this really faster, more robust response as we vaccinate once, twice, and then boost. >> lapook: the c.d.c. says research is ongoing to determine if, down the line, periodic covid-19 immunizations will be needed, just like the annual flu shot. the coronavirus vaccines were developed so quickly because scientists at the national institutes of health and elsewhere had already done the research needed to understand coronavirus's molecular structure. last fall, the n.i.h. asked paul duprex to join a team to study other viruses that can harm humans. so kind of a most wanted list? >> duprex: some of the most deadly agents are represented here. >> lapook: the n.i.h. has prioritized these seven viral families that cause potentially lethal illnesses like ebola, lassa fever, and encephalitis. duprex says more transmissible

viruses emerging from any of these families could unleash another global pandemic. what are scientists doing in the lab today? >> duprex: looking at the three- dimensional structure of these, understanding the genetics, understanding how they evolve, how quickly they change. by understanding the viruses we're ready to fight them whenever they come along and cause trouble. >> lapook: like so many americans, dr. rochelle walensky is taking advantage of a new phase in the pandemic. but as we head towards what may be the off-ramp of the pandemic, she told us she is taking nothing for granted. the country is waking up. >> walensky: yeah. >> lapook: does it excite you or scare you? >> walensky: we're tip-toeing back into it. and how energizing and exciting to be able to do that right now? and yet, we've been hit with so many curve balls, right? and so my job is to protect the public against those curve balls.

and so we have to be, you know, vigilant to make sure that those curve balls don't come. ( ticking ) knowing where you came from, it gives you a sense of “this is who i am”. oh my goodness... wow, look at all those! you get hungry for more and then you're just like, “wow, i'm lingmy family”" yeah, yep. which one, what'd you find? lorraine banks, look, county of macomb, michigan? look at grandma... hey grandma! unbelievable. everybody deserves to know who they are and where they came from. ohhh...cool. this whole journey has been such a huge gift for our family.

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>> sharyn alfonsi: in the world of skiing, there are two kinds of skiers-- those who like to stay on groomed runs and be guided gently around obstacles, and those who like to ski the whole mountain, and ski towards the obstacles. that is called freeriding. man-made jumps, rails, and half-pipes are rejected, in favor of the drops, jagged cliffs, and deep chutes created by mother nature. the sport of freeriding took off in the 1990s, and is now one of the fastest growing disciplines in skiing. given the risks inherent with the terrain, it attracts some of

the bravest and most adventurous skiers in the world. but even among that group, 15-year-old jacob smith stands out. we thought you should see what he does-- because he cannot. this is big sky, montana, home to some of the steepest and most challenging ski slopes in the country. and that is jacob smith, who is blind. three years ago, he was just 12 years old, as he made his way to the top of the 11,000-foot high lone peak, to ski down it. watch this. >> jacob smith: dropping, in three, two, one. >> alfonsi: jacob drops into the big couloir-- a narrow, rock-walled, 1,400-foot chute. that dot is him, making his way turn by turn. a wrong move can be catastrophic. the run has a 50-degree slope, which means if you slip down the

couloir, there is little chance you can stop yourself. >> jacob smith: when you're standing at the top, you feel like, if you move, you're going to die. >> alfonsi: and that's the moment most people would say, "you know what? maybe not a good idea." >> jacob smith: yeah, but i'm kind of just, like, "well, i'm already up here. so i've got to make it down somehow." >> alfonsi: he did-- and became the only legally-blind athlete to ski the legendary run. >> nathan smith: way to go, jacob, you did it! >> jacob smith: that was awesome! >> preston smith: history just has been made. >> nathan smith: forever. >> alfonsi: how did you feel when you made it to the bottom? >> jacob smith: excited that i did it. i didn't crash. i thought it was awesome. and then-- i guess we made it four more times, so i just wanted to do it again. >> alfonsi: you were testing your luck that day. >> jacob smith: yeah. >> announcer: and we got jacob smith on course. >> alfonsi: jacob is still testing his luck-- and good sense. we met him in january at a junior regional freeride tournament in big sky. that's him, now 15 years old, competing against 40 other teenage daredevils, all of whom can see perfectly well. >> announcer: coming right off the top of that.

finding pretty good landing. >> alfonsi: this time, the backgrnd competitors' spectacular experiment with gravity was another triple diamond chute, appropriately named d.t.m. >> alfonsi: d.t.m. stands for? >> jacob smith: don't tell mama. ( laughs ) >> alfonsi: it is an insane run. like, a 45-degree slope. >> jacob smith: yeah. >> alfonsi: do the judges give you any slack for being blind? >> jacob smith: no. zero. >> alfonsi: do you think they should? >> jacob smith: no, i don't. i want to be treated normal, so i compete with other sighted skiers. >> alfonsi: it's not an insignificant difference. we worked with his doctors, and our graphic artist, to show roughly what jacob can see on a run. he has extreme tunnel vision, and no depth perception on top of that-- it's blurry. his visual acuity is rated 20/800, four times the level of legal blindness. think of the big "e" on the eye chart-- he would need it to

be blown up four times in order to see it from 20 feet away. >> announcer: fantastic ski technique. you wouldn't be able to tell he's visually impaired. >> alfonsi: so how does jacob ski like this? his family keeps him on course. >> preston smith: go up with your right ski, really far. >> alfonsi: on competition days, his little brother, preston, patiently helps him hike to the top of the venue. it's so high, the lifts won't take you there. >> nathan smith: first, down, down-- perfect. perfect. keep going. you're in the-- >> alfonsi: then, his father, nathan, helps him get down. >> nathan smith: nice turns. nice turns. >> alfonsi: jacob has a two-way radio turned up high in his pocket. his dad is on the other end, at the base, somehow, calmly, guiding him down. >> nathan smith: okay, right, right, right. there you go. it's on me to make sure i don't let him down, that i get him in trouble, you know, that i-- i have to guide him through narrower chutes, or not go off a cliff. >> alfonsi: you have to be his eyes. >> nathan smith: yeah. >> alfonsi: and there can't be a delay? he can't say, "are you sure, dad?"

>> nathan smith: no. >> alfonsi: have you ever missed it? have you ever said, "oh, gosh, i forgot to tell him about that," or, "i didn't see that"? >> nathan smith: oh, yeah, all the time. but his adaptation is pretty amazing. >> alfonsi: how much do you trust him? >> jacob smith: i mean, enough to turn right when he tells me to. ( laughter ) >> andrew smith: jacob's just putting his all into my dad's voice. it's crazy, skiing, just listening to someone, "turn there, turn there." >> alfonsi: could you ski like that? >> andrew smith: it's like closing your eyes, basically. it would be so hard. >> alfonsi: jacob's siblings are all competitive skiers. that's andrew, who is 17, doing a 360. preston is 14, and julia is 12. >> alfonsi: do the other competitors know that he's blind? >> andrew smith: some do. but they always, like, announce it over the intercom, that, like, "blind skier jacob coming down the hill." >> announcer: he is the only ever-- i have to say-- blind skier. >> andrew smith: that's when everyone turns and looks. "oh, it's a miracle. look at him." >> alfonsi: would you know if you didn't know? >> preston smith: he's-- he's-- he's such a good skier, for legally blind. every-- everybody's like--

>> andrew smith: they just get-- >> preston smith: "--no way." >> andrew smith: --mad at him if he's in the way, instead. >> julia smith: if we tell anybody that he's legally blind, then nobody believes us. they just give us a bad look. >> alfonsi: jacob was born with vision. soon after he learned to walk, he was on skis. family vacations were spent bombing down the trails in big sky with his family. but it was back home, at their ranch in north dakota, that an unexpected obstacle changed jacob's life. he started getting headaches, and began bumping into things. he was eight years old. >> jacob smith: i, like, ran into a wall or something. and my mom saw. and then it was, like, two days after i went to the eye doctor. and he took one look at my eyes, looked at my mom, and then just asked, like, "which hospital do you want," because my optic nerve was swelling and bleeding. >> alfonsi: did you have any sense that things were going wrong up until that point? >> jacob smith: no. >> alfonsi: that day, jacob was flown here, to the masonic children's hospital in

minneapolis, where he underwent an emergency 12-hour surgery after an m.r.i. revealed a cancerous brain tumor the size of a softball that was crushing his optic nerve. >> nathan smith: it's the scariest thing i've ever seen in my life. it looked like half his brain was a tumor. >> alfonsi: so, at that point, you're not thinking, i'm worried he's going to lose his vision? you're thinking, i'm worried-- >> nathan smith: i'm losing my child. >> alfonsi: you're going to lose your child? >> nathan smith: i'm going to bury a kid. >> alfonsi: in that first surgery, doctors removed enough of the tumor to relieve the pressure on jacob's optic nerve to stop his vision from continuing to deteriorate. here he is leaving a message for his siblings a few days later. >> jacob smith: i miss you all a lot. i really, really do. my vision's getting better. i'm coming home, and i'm really excited. >> alfonsi: but jacob would need

three more major brain surgeries over the next three years-- all before he was 12 years old. >> nurse: the head feels okay? >> alfonsi: each time, with an extensive rehabilitation. did you ever get down about it? >> jacob smith: like, i did. but at the same time, i just-- prayed a lot. >> alfonsi: when you were praying about it, were you praying, "this'll be over"? were you praying, "i want to get my vision back"? or were you praying-- >> jacob smith: just to let-- >> alfonsi: "--i'll stay alive"? >> jacob smith: that i'll stay alive and that i'll get through it. and that's what happened. >> alfonsi: finally, in 2017, a course of radiation eradicated the cancer and jacob got a clean scan. but his doctors said the radiation increased his lifetime risk of another brain tumor by up to 30%. >> nathan smith: right now, the tumor that we originally targeted is gone. you know, so far, so good. >> alfonsi: it doesn't sound like you've exhaled. >> nathan smith: i don't think

you ever exhale. >> alfonsi: because? >> nathan smith: because there's always the "what if." you know, you-- when you get put into that situation that you never felt you ever should've been or expected, i don't think you're ever going to exhale and go, it's-- we're done. >> alfonsi: whose idea was it to return to skiing? >> jacob smith: well, my dad's. ( laughs ) >> nathan smith: turn and go straight through. >> jacob smith: so we came out here and we kind of just tried it out. everywhere i went skiing for probably the first year or two was with either my dad or a coach. >> alfonsi: you taught your kids to ski, but you've never taught a blind child to ski. >> nathan smith: no. >> alfonsi: so you did not know what you were doing. >> nathan smith: no. >> alfonsi: so tell me about those early days. >> nathan smith: well, at first, everyone said, "get a rope and a sign. and he's going to be a blind skier and you're going to guide him." like-- i'm like, "nope, that's not an option. we're not going to do it that way." >> alfonsi: because, why? >> nathan smith: because i'm not going to let that define him. >> alfonsi: father and son admit they are trying to carve their own path-- sort of figuring it out as they go.

jacob says he's learned to listen for danger. other skiers; the churning of a lift; or icy conditions under-foot. and he says he remembers many of the runs from when he could see. can you feel your way down a run you didn't go on before you lost your vision? >> jacob smith: i mean, yeah, i can-- and i've done it. ( laughs ) >> alfonsi: and how does it work out? >> jacob smith: it's pretty scary. and-- sometimes takes me a l-- little minute. >> alfonsi: that's got to be terrifying. >> jacob smith: you get used to it. ( laughs ) >> alfonsi: how many crashes were there in those early days? >> jacob smith: ( sighs ) i don't even think i can count that high. >> alfonsi: when jacob was 10, he shattered his femur in 60 places when he skied into a tree. are you not nervous that there's going to be a catastrophic accident, that he could die doing this? >> nathan smith: it's not the way i, like, envision life. i don't look for the reasons not to do things. i'm not going to put him in something that i'm not going through first.

that the consequences of falling are not going to be life-threatening. >> alfonsi: what are you fearful of? >> jacob smith: the only big fear i have is not succeeding. >> alfonsi: you're more afraid of not succeeding than you are of getting hurt? >> jacob smith: yes. >> alfonsi: why is that? >> jacob smith: because i've already lost my vision, so a cou-- a couple broken bones and a couple more mishaps, i guess, isn't a big deal to me at all. >> alfonsi: clearly, he's fearless. as a parent, are you not fearful? >> nathan smith: he's not reckless. he knows his limitations. i think he has the ability to ski anything on the mountain, but he's not going to go try to do it by himself. like, he wants to be with somebody who he trusts. he won't ski with people he doesn't trust. >> alfonsi: nathan said jacob is cautious about skiing and competing on low visibility days when he can see even less than usual. still, he finds a way of keeping up with his siblings. they are an enviable pack on the

mountain. do you see him being, like, super plugged into everything else, right? to the sounds? he was saying he, like, hears the lift, the snow-- >> preston smith: yeah. >> andrew smith: oh, yeah. >> alfonsi: what do you see? >> andrew smith: his hearing is very, like-- he chooses what he wants to hear. ( laughs ) so... >> alfonsi: what do you mean? ( laughs ) >> andrew smith: there's times at home where he'll be-- like, you could say his name a thousand times and he'll pretend like he didn't hear one word. ( laughter ) but then, skiing, it's, like, you could, like, flick and he'll, like, just turn, you know. >> alfonsi: on competition day, jacob suits up and sends it... >> jacob smith: dad, dropping in three, two, one. >> alfonsi: ...finishing 19th out of 41 competitors. for jacob, success isn't about the trophy. it's about freedom-- showing others how to negotiate obstacles, even when you can't see them coming. >> nathan smith: coming to the finish line. there you go. >> jacob smith: honestly, no matter what gets thrown in front of you, what kind of comes out of nowhere and-- strikes you,

takes you off-guard a little bit, there is always a way to conquer it. to adapt. to make it happen, and still do what you want to do. ( ticking ) welcome to cbssportshq presented by progressive insurance. >> hi, i'm greg grumble in new york. seven days away. chicago dancing once again after claiming the missouri conference crown. longwood secured the first ncaa tournament, winning the big south. the ram bers join in the field of 68. join us for the first reveal of 68. join us for the first reveal next sunday on cbs. he looks more like dad every time i see him. -dad is old. -right.

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( ticking ) captioning funded by cbs and ford. we go further, so you can. captioned by media a ess group at wgbh access.wgbh.org i serve as an equalizer. i'm the one you call when you can't call 911. cuff me now. do it. previously on the equalizer... was it really about the family, pop? or was it just about you? benjamin: the system was getting in the way of us getting justice, so i did what i needed to do. ah! you don't have to be so tough, you know. i'm not scared of nothin'. prove it. because part of being brave is making hard choices to change your life. i can't do this. excuse me. are you kisha griffin? robyn: you said you never had someone who believed in you. well, now you do. if you ever need help, call me. i'm ready.