Someone eventually passes one over, and I get him set up on the right channel. We do a quick test run to make sure I can hear him in my helmet, and I breathe just a little easier.
Leaving that office is harder than when I left home, but stepping one foot outside in the dark with the furious wind whipping around us, I know it’s time to focus. Somewhere out there, someone could be dying, and they’re relying on me and my team to bring them back to their loved ones.
Walking toward our vehicles, Deacon glances at me a few times, and I’m not sure if he saw me kiss Hanlon and has questions, or if he’s just as nervous about this mission as I am, but since everything we say from here on out will be picked up over the microphones, we don’t address either of those things.
“Our approach will be slow, but time is still of the essence. We’ll cross the western boundary as close to the bottom as we can,but the trees are so dense once we leave the resort, we’ll have to cut across a little higher than I’d like. We’ll go single file. It’s important that you stay in my tracks. Does everyone understand?”
A chorus ofyessirrings in my ears, and if I’m not mistaken, one of the voices belongs to Hanlon. I bite my cheek to hide my smile.
The four of us head west, snow falling across our headlight beams, casting an eerie, foggy glow in the void in front of us.
It takes thirty minutes for us to reach the boundary that Hanlon tested not so long ago. The tests confirmed a terribly weakened snowpack, and the avalanche risk was typed asExtreme.
And then we got grounded and couldn’t blast.
“Approaching high-risk avalanche terrain,” I report into my microphone. “You are to wait for me to get across and away from the fall line before starting your turn. I’ll flash my lights when the next in line can cross.”
My team all flash a thumbs up in front of their chests, so as not to clog the comms line.
“Stone.” Hanlon’s voice rings in my ear.
“Yeah?”
“Don’t make a line straight across this zone. The last test had a horizontal fracture line that was six layers down. Cross at a slight upward angle, so if anything is triggered, it’ll hopefully break off below you. Once your team is across safely, head for the trees immediately.”
His voice warms the chill inside me. Hanlon has always been older and wiser than his years, but seeing and hearing ithere,in my domain, under these circumstances, is unlike anything I’ve ever experienced.
Gritting my teeth, I slowly inch my machine forward, fighting the urge to fly over the snow and get out of the danger zone as quickly as I can.
Six agonizing minutes later, I reach the other side and flash my lights back toward my team.
“Confirming safe passage. I’m on stable ground. Deacon, you’re up.”
And so, we repeat this until all four of us are safely across, and I can finally relax. We won’t have to cross that line again because the rescue will happen wherever we find our skiers—because wewillfind them—and then we’ll refuel from the S&R chopper and drive back around the base of the mountain. It’ll take a couple of hours, but I won’t have to risk my life, and that’s worth a little extra time in the storm.
“Wind gusts are picking up, currently blowing northwest,” Hanlon says into the mic. “Let’s hope it stays that way. If they shift to the south, you guys might have to alter your route. I’m working on coordinates closer to the potential safe zone now.”
“Han, who’s with you?”
“Team Two’s still here, ready to be deployed if needed, Stone,” a voice I recognize as Joel Murphy says. “Kid won’t let us get a word in edgewise. He’s calculating this shit faster than I’ve ever seen.”
Our whole team is sixty people deep, but I rarely see some of them. Joel is one of those guys.
I laugh into my mic. “Yeah, I wouldn’t even try. He’s a stubborn fucker and smarter than most of you combined anyway.”
It feels good to joke around. My team’s safely behind me, we’ve crossed the most dangerous terrain, and I’m pretty sure I can hear thewhomp-whomp-whompof the S&R helicopter, which means we’re getting close to our destination, where the real work begins. When I search the sky, the storm clouds are obscuring the moon, and it’s too dark to see the chopper’s beams.
“Fuck!” Hanlon shouts suddenly, damn near making medeaf. I guess he’s not in much of a joking mood despite our successful trek across the fall line. “Stone?”
“Yeah, Skittles?” The name just slips out. I expect him to say something, orsomeoneto say something, but his panicked voice ignores the blunder completely.
“The Forest Service has a geophone about two hundred meters above you. It’s registering problematic vibrations. You’ve gotta take covernow.”
“The S&R chopper is above us. I bet it’s picking up the vibration from the rotors.”
“What the fuck are they doing up there?!” Hanlon yells.
“Relax, Han. The plan is for their team to repel to the location, then ride on our snowmobiles for the search. We were trying to keep vehicle traffic to a minimum due to the conditions.”
