Chapter 37

Christoph led the French mountain rescue team that found the bright orange survival bag with the barely moving, three youngsters.

He did actually say “mon dieu” when he saw the sorrowful sight of the three students. All curled up as close as they were able, with Joseph and Emma wrapped around their younger brother Sam, although his ski pole splint and leg did not allow for people to lie in immediate close proximity to him. Christoph realised that these kids had been on the mountain for at least twelve hours too long.

His rescue team worked like a well oiled machine. Roles were automatically taken to place each of the three young adults into ‘blood-wagons’ to remove them from the mountain and back down to Plagne Centre as quickly as possible. The slope where the orange survival bag lay perched on the cliff edge and tangled in the jagged rocks was too steep and risky for a helicopter evacuation.

An expert skier would snow-plough their skis in front of the wagon with each hand holding onto a long wooden pole. The poles were connected to a stretcher behind, which lay on a couple of skids. They were extremely effective for removing patients from inaccessible areas of the region.

The rescuers had ensured that each of their captives were wrapped up properly for the journey and were comfortable. It would soon be discovered how dehydrated and in need of nourishment each of the skiers were. It was the role of the doctors in the resort town of La Plagne to provide the health check, following which they could make the right recommendations for casualties being brought off the mountains to be treated.

It was important that Sam’s journey was smooth. His leg had become numb since the damage sustained on the rocks above the cliff edge. The rescue team decided to leave the temporary ski-pole splint in place, but worked around it to ensure that he would have as immobile a trip as possible, within a stretcher being brought down a steep glacier.

Emma’s recollections of this period in her life, when brought round, were minimal.

She had lost track of time, and was confused by what had occurred over the last twenty four hours. She remembered being cold, oh so cold, like she had never been before. She would have given anything for a hot water bottle at that moment. She then remembered attempting to cuddle up to her brothers to share any body warmth that they had and Joseph humming James Bond theme tunes so that Sam would also attempt to hum along and not drift off into unconsciousness.

There was something else, and it kept ticking over in her mind, nagging at her. She just could not work out what it was. She attempted to take in her surroundings. Her whole close family was now around her and her parents were massively relieved that all three of their children were all going to be alright. Nothing had been anyone’s fault and there was going to be no blaming, but her parents had been hugely worried and when they first saw Sam, they had only just managed to refrain from tears.

Joseph seemed to have braved the worst of it; he sat on the edge of a temporary bed in the hospital centre with a steaming hot drink in his hands. His eyes and whole face had lit up again. He was telling their parents how good the snow had been, how they had done justice to the powder at the very top of the off-piste; how it had been a freak hidden rock that had pulled Sam’s ski away from his boot and then how the ski had rocketed over the cliff edge. Joseph did not mention the visitors that had been present prior to the French rescue team. He seemed to have forgotten about that episode within the story.

Emma was still mulling things over in her head and all of the bits just would not fit together. She was sure that Joseph had left their winter survival bag momentarily. Again, the times were unclear and, try as she might, the facts that she had would not straighten out. The one thing that was just weird and was unable to fit in the jigsaw was the voice of someone that she knew. My goodness, the voice of Archie Malcolm and what did he have to do with this mess. She went back to sleep. Sleep could only sort out the confusion and even if it did not, she knew that she really, really, needed it.