Ash Creek Woods

Part I

Opening your eyes as a blue glow illuminates the inside of your tent, a shrill noise like tearing paper, the door flies open, and the hair on your neck stands as the frigid air fills the tent. The warm glow of the morning sun contrasts with the snow-covered ground. Glancing around the tent, you notice that your partner has already left. Stepping out of the tent, you feel yourself sinking into the powered snow from the night before. Donning your goggles, the world shifts to a warm shade of yellow. Looking out over the white, snow-topped plain on which you and your partner set up camp. You see your partner standing over a small cliff, admiring the valley below as the sound of clinking carabiners whips across the snow. As he begins walking back to the tent, you slip your gloves over your hands, bend down, and loosen the first stake that was securing your tent. Rolling it tightly, you stuff it back in your bag. As you crunch through the snow, you look to your partner and ask, “Sam, how long have you been up before me?” He tells you, “Not long, only 5 or so minutes.” Each step takes more and more effort as the snow drift gets deeper. A few hours pass with the snow getting deeper, and you decide to stop for lunch as you're getting hungry.

Feeling energized after eating, you hoist yourself out of the snow and, brushing off your backpack, you keep moving; luckily, as you get higher, the snow gets more densely packed. You climb further when patches of ice begin to replace the uninterrupted snow. Stopping for a moment, you slip your crampons over your boots, the spikes digging into the ice. Small chunks of it tumbling down the steep slope. As the sun lowers over the mountain’s ridge, the snow tints to a warm orange. You put on your headlamp and continue your ascent. After another hour of climbing, you stop on a cliff edge to look at the rest of the route. After thinking for a moment, you stop and set up your tent and sleep until morning. 

You awake to your tent being shaken by the howling winds. You check your watch, the green numbers flash: 5:30. Despite how early it is, the sun’s already high in the sky. Glancing around the tent, you notice Sam's absence. Reaching into your belt, you click on your radio. You call out, “Sam, you up? Where are you?” only for your voice to be echoed outside of your tent. Confused, you investigate, and stepping into the snow, you see the radio partially buried in the snow drift. You pick it up and stuff it in your pocket. As you continue to look around, a pair of fresh footprints leads away from the tent. Following them, you find a rope dangling over the side of a towering cliff and another pair of footprints seemingly running towards it.  As you peer over the edge, a lone harness hangs at the end of the rope.

To be Continued