Word: snows
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...wind was fiercer on the Owens Valley side. It blew sleet and snow hard enough to turn any exposed flesh a deep red-violet. There was also more snow. Old snow, left over from a harsh winter, was covered with a new and slippery coat. Most of the time I could follow Adrian's footprints but there came a stretch where they ran out. At the same point, the snow all of a sudden became too steep to walk across...
...because for the first time it finally dawned on me that any moment, with any slip, I could die, that, in fact, I probably would--especially since there was no safe way to get across the snowfield. The only thing to do was to sit and slide on the snow and try to halt before the rocks, which reared up like so many menacing bone-breakers, stopped me. So I did, and it worked. The snow even warmed my legs, which scared me. I started to worry seriously. No one was anywhere in sight. There was only snow and rock...
...what was necessary alone, which scared me. No longer thinking about myself, I tried to follow Adrian's footsteps at a run but kept losing them since the switchbacks had stopped as the ground leveled off for a while. Because the cairns meant to mark the trail were snow-covered, and indistinguishable from countless other rockpiles, it could go anywhere. I started to panic, tearlessly, soundlessly, then started to yell for Adrain. No answer. Nor was there any sign of Johnnie and the others. Unwillingly, I assumed they'd been wiser and gone to the summit hut, which meant there...
THEN, FINALLY, it hit me. If I stayed, all three of us would die. They'd already given up and had sat down in the snow. The last stages of hypothermia were setting in, which meant they were already as good as gone. What chance would I have to make it through the night alone? It was highly likely I would die crossing the stream, but at least I would have tried to get out; I couldn't give up the way they had. At the same time one voice was telling me I was done for, another told...
...warmed up, regained some strength and considerably more sense. They wanted to make me drop my pack, as Mike had done. By then I knew enough to say no. We were below treeline, and although my fingers were still numb and non-functioning, there was no more snow, only rain. I knew I would make it the rest...