Chapter 22

The snow swirled and fell upwards and downwards. They could hardly see more than a few feet in front of their faces as the storm raged.

“Let’s take a break here,” Jeremy said, gesturing to a place behind the rocks. “We need to get out of this wind, and I have to get my bearings.”

“Do you think we should stop and wait the storm out?” Kendal’s father had to yell in order to be heard.

Jeremy just shook his head.

“We have to keep going. We have to make it down. If we wait, we could freeze to death.” They continued to descend. Jeremy, then Kendal’s father, then Kendal.

Her legs were both cold and tired. It was harder going down. The snow made it impossible to see, and with each step, she could feel gravity and the pull of the earth.

“You’re doing great,” Jeremy said. “We’ll be at Devil’s Kitchen in no time and then it’s a straight shot down to Powell’s Point. Once there, we can follow the ski lift down to the lodge.”

They each took a sip of water and continued on.

The wind was gale force; there was nothing to block it. Jeremy signaled them to stay close. He was just a few feet ahead when Kendal heard a loud crack, then a crash. Her feet began to slide.

Lifting her ice ax, Kendal positioned it in front of her and dug the tip into the glacier beneath her to stop herself from sliding. Then she felt the rope around her waist grow tight. She looked behind her and saw that her father was slowly sliding toward a dark crevice. The rope that had connected him to Jeremy dangled loose. Jeremy was not on the other end.

Kendal watched in horror as her father tried to stop his slide. He had lost his ice ax in the fall.

Kendal held onto her ax with all her might.

“You need to unclasp the rope from your waist,” her father yelled up to her through the roaring wind and blowing snow. “You need to let me go. You won’t be able to hold on if I slip.”

“No,” Kendal shouted to him. She dug the points of her feet deeper into the glacier. She wasn’t going to let her father fall, but when she turned around to look back at him, she saw that his left foot had slipped. In one swift motion, she saw him grasp the carabiner at the end of his rope and unclasp it. She watched her father fall over the edge.