Bear started to dig so that the tunnel sloped upwards. Outside, the first snowflakes began to fall.
When Olly looked up from building his wall, he could see millions of them whirling about in the middle of the approaching storm.
It was only a matter of time until they would be engulfed in the blizzard.
Olly made the wall higher as the flakes whipped around him in the growing wind. Each block took a bit of time, but he made himself keep working and doing the job well. He knew now why everything they had done that day had taken a bit more time than he liked. Testing each step, not walking in a straight line, choosing the harder place to dig.
It had been so they could do it properly. And do it only once.
Now he knew what the wall was for, Olly realised he couldn’t afford to go so fast that the blocks weren’t any good or the wall fell down.
He was learning that in the wild you don’t always get second chances.
When it was the same height as Olly, Bear told him it was big enough. Olly happily crawled back into the tunnel.
As soon as he was back in, he was surprised by how warm he felt. Well, warmer. It was because his wall blocked out the wind. But when he breathed out a puff of air, he could see it whirling in front of him.
“It’s still pretty cold,” he pointed out.
“Sure,” Bear agreed with a laugh. He had dug the tunnel upwards for about a metre, then started to dig sideways. “It’s still freezing! If it wasn’t then all this snow would melt and the cave would collapse. But it won’t get any colder. Outside, we’d freeze to death in that wind. In here it’s a steady temperature, around zero degrees, and our clothes can keep us warm.”
Olly kept on clearing out the fresh piles of snow behind him. Every time he stuck his head outside, the snowflakes had grown thicker. The wind was starting to howl like some kind of animal. He couldn’t see more than a couple of metres in any direction. Everything was just white. Even though he had his hood up, the cold turned his face numb.
It was a relief to pull his head back into the tunnel.
Eventually they had carved out a small snow cave at the end of the tunnel. It was big enough to lie down in, but not stand up. Even Olly only had room to kneel.
“We’re higher than the end of the tunnel,” Olly observed, as they brushed the floor smooth.
“Exactly. Cold air sinks, and warm air rises, so the cold air will go down the tunnel while the air up here stays warm. Now help me smooth down the ceiling, so it doesn’t start to drip on us when the snow warms up with our body heat.”
Together they brushed at the ceiling with their gloved hands until it was as smooth as it could be.
By the end, they were both covered in loose white powder.
“And the very last job,” Bear said, “is to brush yourself off. Snow on your clothes will melt and make them damp.”
“Which makes you cold,” Olly said with a smile.
Bear grinned at him. “You’re learning.”
They took turns to knock the loose snow off their clothes at the entrance to the tunnel. By now there was a full storm raging outside. Back in their little snow cave, the air barely moved.
It was very dim because the only light came from the tunnel entrance. Bear used his rucksack to block it off, and then there was no light at all, so he flicked a torch on. He pulled a tarpaulin from his pack and laid it down on the floor.
“We sit and lie on this, for insulation,” he explained. “Otherwise the snow will suck the heat right out of our bodies.” He pulled a couple of ration bars out of his rucksack. “This is dinner. Have you got the water?”
Olly had refilled the flasks full of snow several times during the day. The freezing mountain air was bone dry and they had to drink a lot. Now he pulled them out of his coat for the last time that day.
They tucked into their bars and washed them down with melted snow water. Olly was just knocking back the last drops when he had a thought. What goes in comes out – eventually.
“Uh, so …” he began. “What do I do if I need to, uh … go?”
“Down there.” Bear pointed at the bottom of the slope in the tunnel. “Let it soak into the snow, then cover it up with loose powder. We can’t go outside now until the storm has passed. But it will pass. Storms always do.”
Olly looked where Bear was pointing and grimaced.
After that, the only thing to do was wait out the storm. It was howling outside, but in here it sounded like it was a long way off. Olly lay down and pulled the padded hood of his coat up to act like a pillow.
He had never felt happier in his life. Which was strange considering the danger and discomfort he was in.
He looked around at what they had made together.
“You know, this is actually pretty cool,” he said drowsily.
Bear smiled.
“A strong team, good preparation and a bit of effort, and you can manage almost anything.”
As Bear talked, Olly could feel sleep creeping up on him. He was bone tired. He had been walking all day, and then he hadn’t stopped for even a moment in the rush to dig the shelter out. He blushed to think how he had lied to duck out of building the den with Jack and Omar. He had thought that was too much effort! It seemed such a long time ago.
Then his heavy eyes closed – asleep.
