by Todd Borg
“Right.”
“So you need someone to teach you all that stuff.”
Simone nodded.
“It’s December nineteenth. If you were going to go during the solstice, you’d have to learn it all in just two days.”
Another nod.
“You won’t be healed enough to go in two days.”
“Yes, I will. These bruises look bad, and they hurt. But I could still go. I know more about how bruises heal than pretty much anyone.”
“Okay,” I said. “I know several ski experts, but they all have jobs. They could maybe meet with you for an evening, but that wouldn’t be nearly enough time. There is only one person who might be able to teach you all of what you need and do it on short notice.”
“Who’s that?”
“Joe Rorvik.”
While Simone listened, I called Joe and explained what Simone needed and asked if he could help.
He said that she was nuts to consider doing such a dangerous expedition for her first back-country experience. He also said that if she really wanted to pursue it, he would be able to tell her what she needed to know. I asked how long such an intensive workshop would take. He thought about it and said that if Simone was really sharp and if she focused well, he could probably teach her all the basics in a couple of days. But he couldn’t get her in shape. That would take months. I said that I’d pass on the information.
After we hung up, I told Simone what he’d said, leaving out the part about her being nuts.
“When would we start?” she asked.
“Now. The South Lake Tahoe police will have let Ned go by now. You can’t go home.”
Simone and I made a plan. My first call was to Street at her lab. She agreed to meet us at her condo. Because it was surrounded by other condos, it seemed a safer place than my cabin. It was also possible that Ned wouldn’t know where Street lived.
By the time we got to Street’s, Simone was having second thoughts about seeing Joe. She didn’t want to endure his judgment. But she agreed that she needed help from an expert on skiing. I tried to convince her that Joe would respect her efforts and be impressed once he realized that she was going to change her life.
Having already been missing from Ned’s life for almost two days, Simone was petrified of what Ned would do if he found her. She knew he’d been spying on Joe, and she believed that he would check on the Rorvik house to see if she went there.
So I called Diamond and asked if he was available for a little off-duty security work. He said he could juggle his schedule and come around the next two days and sit in on Joe Rorvik’s impromptu back-country class.
Diamond met us at Street’s, driving his ancient pickup.
We tried to hurry, but we didn’t get to Joe’s until 5 p.m. But the darkness gave us cover. Joe had turned off his front entry light, the Christmas lights on the sculptures, and the motion light above the garage door. We walked from darkened vehicles into a darkened house, and Joe led us into his origami room. It was dimly lit by a night light. The curtains were shut over the big windows.
Joe seemed not to even notice Simone. He turned toward Diamond. “Pleased to see you again, sergeant,” Joe said. They shook hands. He looked at Diamond’s old sweatshirt and faded jeans and worn running shoes. “Are you a back-country skier?” he asked.
Diamond shook his head. “No. I go into the back-country in winter only if I have a snowmobile and a guide and I never get more than a hundred yards from a house with a warm fire, hot chile on the stovetop, and cerveza in the fridge.”
Joe smiled. “Of that list, I only have the cerveza. Would Fat Tire suffice?”
“Sí,” Diamond said.
“If you don’t ski back-country, you are here to...”
“Security detail. My presence maybe helps Simone relax.”
Joe looked Diamond over a second time. “Forgive my impertinence, but does that mean you carry a gun when you’re not in uniform?”
“Sí.”
“I don’t see a holster.”
“Sí.”
Joe nodded understanding. “I’m a little slow.”
Joe and I fetched beers, and we all sat on Joe’s big furniture.
“Let’s go over the plan,” I said. “Tonight and tomorrow, Joe is going to help Simone learn about back-country techniques in prep for the Tahoe Randonnée Extreme challenge, which she wants to participate in during the winter solstice. Come the solstice, morning after next, Simone and I are going to go to the South Lake Tahoe PD, where she will file assault charges against Ned Cavett. I will give Commander Mallory advance notice so that there will be no delay.
“Ned will be arrested and brought to custody. After Ned is gone, Street and I will help Simone gather her ski equipment and other gear. We will leave some evidence at the house that suggests that Simone is going to participate in the ski race to Truckee.”
I continued. “With Ned’s priors, he will be familiar with the bail process, and he will call a bail bondsman. He is, no doubt, already angry with Simone for disappearing. After his arrest, he will be enraged and will step up his efforts to find her.”
I drank some beer. “After Street and I drop Simone off up by Sugar Bowl, I will search their house. I hope to acquire sufficient evidence to charge Ned in Rell’s assault and two other separate murder cases. With that we could keep him locked up. But in the event that Ned does get out, he won’t be able to find Simone because he will be looking at the race to Truckee while she will have already left on the Randonnée challenge on the Sierra Crest. She’ll be in the high country south of Donner Summit, heading on skis toward points south, and attempting to bag twenty mountain peaks on the way.”
“A good plan,” Joe said. “How can I help?”
I looked at Simone. “Do you want to answer that?”
She looked nervous. “I... I’ve done some training,” she said in a tiny voice. “I carried a backpack. Stuff like that. I’ve read about the route. But I don’t know what else to do.”
Joe looked around at the rest of us. “Which of you has back-country ski experience?”
Nobody spoke.
“Who is your buddy on this trip?” Joe asked.
“I don’t have a buddy. I’ll be skiing alone.”
“That is unwise to the point of foolishness,” Joe said. “The Tahoe Randonnée takes you through the Granite Chief Wilderness, then on south to the Desolation Wilderness. Most of the time you’ll be very far from civilization. There is no cellphone coverage along much of the route. Everyone knows that you always take a buddy when you go into the wilderness.” Joe sounded stern.
We all looked at Simone. Her hands shook. I wanted to speak up on her behalf, but I recognized that this was part of the process of taking charge of your life, staking out a position and defending it. If I intervened, it would exacerbate her dependency on others. I looked at Street, my eyebrows raised. She made a little shake of her head.
Eventually, Simone said, “Going solo is part of the challenge. The greater the challenge you face, the more valuable the experience becomes.”
“Well put,” Joe said.
“I know that I’m small, but I’m strong for my size. I can carry a pack with food and tent. I did a test and walked around the neighborhood with it three different times. It was really heavy, but I could do it. I don’t... I don’t have skills. But I have lots of endurance. And I’ve done a lot of cross-country skiing, just not up and down mountains. I believe I can do this. I’m determined to do this.”
“Then let me just say that you should call someone every time you get to a mountaintop. The cellphone buddy system. Most mountaintops are within a sightline of a cell tower. At least that way someone will know where you were last, should you fail to come out the other end.”
“Okay,” Simone said. “I’ll call Owen from some of the mountain checkpoints.”
Joe took a deep breath. “Simone, have you ever climbed a mountain on skis?”
“No. But I did some hill climb training with skins on my
skis. I found some steep slopes to work on over on Tahoe Mountain by the high school.”
“You won’t want to be on steep slopes of any kind, going up or down. We’ll try to keep you on medium slopes or less. Can you ski down medium slopes?”
“I’m not an expert skier, if that’s what you mean. I’m a decent intermediate. And I can really make time on the flats. I know I’m little, but I have stamina. I can keep going and going. You probably think this is crazy, but I believe I can do forty miles or more on skis.”
“With a heavy pack,” Joe said, sounding gruff.
“Yes,” Simone said. She looked him straight in the yes. “With a heavy pack.”
“You know that there is no grooming in the back-country.”
“Of course.” Simone sounded offended. “I’ve skied on junk snow. I know about traversing and doing kick turns, coming down a slope on bad snow, one traverse at a time.”
“Have you ever gone winter camping?”
“Not really. I slept in a yurt on the snow in college.”
“Have you cooked on a campstove?” he asked.
“Yes. I got some used camping equipment from a friend, including a cookstove. I told Ned I wanted to try doing dinner on it for fun. He was suspicious as always, but he let me. It was hard. Just one little burner. But it worked. I made stroganoff.”
“You have an alpine tent and a heavy down bag?”
“What’s an alpine tent?” Simone asked.
“External frame, small, lightweight, but able to withstand high winds.”
“Yes, I think that describes my tent,” she said. “I got it on eBay, and I set it up in the yard one day when Ned was at work.”
“You’ve never slept in it?”
“No,” Simone said, shaking her head. “You think I’m stupid to do this, don’t you?”
“I’m just asking questions,” Joe said, irritation in his voice. “Do you have experience navigating in the back-country?”
She shook her head.
“Do you know how to read a topo map?”
“No.” Simone’s voice was getting smaller.
Joe looked at me, alarm on his face.
“Joe,” I said, “let’s assume that Simone has no qualifications for this other than extreme desire and the need to be safe from Ned. As soon as he gets out on bail, he will come looking for her. If she is in town, in a safe house, he may find her. As you said yourself, he is feral and clever. He has an instinctive sense about these things. I wouldn’t trust that he couldn’t figure out some way to get the safe house location. If Simone is out in the back-country, he won’t easily be able to find her. But the bigger part of this is that Simone has decided to take on a major challenge as the start of a new life. She’s dreamed of this for a long time. If she can pull it off, she will prove to herself that she is capable of nearly anything.”
Joe nodded. Drank some beer. Made the chewing motions.
“Okay,” he said. “Let’s start with navigation.” He walked across the room to a wastebasket that was filled with rolls of paper. He pulled out several and spread them out on the big origami table. He chose several maps and lined them up so that they made a big picture of the mountains to the west of the lake.
“Come sit next to me,” he said to Simone. She did as requested.
“Do you know what topo lines are?”
“No. I’m sorry I’m so ignorant.”
“No more sorrys tonight, okay?” Joe said. “We’re here to learn.” He pointed to the maps. “All these curvy lines show areas of equal elevation. They are called topographical lines because they reveal the topography, the shape, of the landscape.”
Joe walked over to the big paper dispenser, pulled off a sheet of paper, and did some folding and bending. In a minute, he had created the shape of a mountain and a sloping valley. He touched the point of a pencil to the mountain. “If I move this pencil around the mountain without going up or down, I’ve found a line of equal elevation.” He drew a rough circle around the paper mountain.
“Now, if I go down a hundred feet and do another line of equal elevation, that would be another topo line.” He moved the pencil down a bit and drew another circle around the mountain. He looked at Simone. “Are you with me?”
She nodded.
He held out the paper model of mountain and valley. “If I look straight down at this model of the mountain, I can see what those lines look like from above. If I draw those shapes on a flat piece of paper, I have a topo map.”
Joe took another piece of plain paper and set it flat on the table. “This is our map.” He drew concentric circles. “Here’s a representation of our nice, symmetrical paper mountain. Now let’s map our valley.”
Joe put the pencil on the origami paper valley and moved it on the level around the top part of the valley. The line made a U-shape. He again moved the pencil down and made another line, taking care to keep the pencil line level as it moved around the origami valley. It became another U-shape, narrower, tucked inside the first one.
“Those are topo lines going through the valley. Let’s put those on the flat map.” He drew similar lines on the map. Then he filled in more valley lines and mountain lines. He slid his home-made map in front of Simone.
“Look at the result. These lines show the mountain, these show the valley. And I can add more that represent any kind of undulating landscape.”
Simone spoke up. “If I were up on this mountain and I walked along as if I were following a topo line, I wouldn’t go up or down at all, right?”
“Exactly,” Joe said, obviously pleased. “You would be taking a level route across whatever slope you were on.”
“And if there’s an area with no topo lines on the map?” Simone said. “What would that mean?”
“That would mean that it’s a flat area.”
Joe pointed to the real map and showed Simone different areas and explained how they went up and down. Soon, it appeared that she had the hang of it and, with a little thinking, could tell the shape of any landform.
Next, Joe showed her how to put a compass on top of a map, then rotate the map until north on the map matched north on the compass.
“Do you know about Magnetic Deviation?”
Simone shook her head.
“A compass points to the magnetic north pole, not the geographic north pole. They are quite far apart. In Tahoe, the difference is over thirteen degrees.” He pointed to the map. “See this symbol? This arrow shows geographic north, and this arrow shows magnetic north. So you rotate your map so that the magnetic north arrow aligns with your compass needle. Then your map will match the landscape. By studying the topo lines, you can look at the features on the map and match them to your landscape. That way you will know where you are and plan where you want to go. Do you know your specific route?”
“No. I have to sign up on the website, and then I’ll be given all of my mountains to climb. I’m supposed to determine my route from that.”
“Can you do that now?” Joe asked.
“If I can use your computer, yes.”
Joe pointed to the computer on his desk. “We’ll wait.”
Street helped Simone work through the process of signing up and requesting a Tahoe Randonnée Extreme route to be started on the winter solstice.
Joe and Diamond and I each had a beer while they worked. Simone and Street declined. Soon, Simone brought a printout over to Joe.
“Perfect,” Joe said. “Each checkpoint is shown in the order they want you to pursue them. This will be fun.” I could see that he was intrigued.
Joe pointed to the topo maps arranged across the table. “Here’s where you will start on Donner Pass Road. Near the chair lifts at Sugar Bowl. Your first mountain to climb is Donner Peak at just over eight thousand feet.” He put an x on the mountain top. “So we’ll draw a line that goes up the slope at a gradual angle so that you can climb on skis.” He drew with care and precision and just a bit of the wavering common to people of his age.
“Always remember to stay off steep slopes, never ski near the base of steep slopes, and try to avoid any slopes that face northeast.”
“Why?” Simone said.
“Avalanche danger. Do you have a beacon or one of those new inflatable vests?”
She shook her head.
“Well, skip the beacon. No one will be near you to pull you out anyway. But get a vest. If you get caught in a slide, you pull the lever and it inflates. Having a big bubble around your neck helps keep you floating to the top of a slide.”
“How do I tell if the slope is steep or faces northeast?” Simone asked.
“We look at the same old topo lines. If they are close together, that means the slope is steep. If they orient to the northeast, that means a slope that gets lots of wind-loading and too little sun to help weld the snow layers together. Most people who die in avalanches are on northeast-facing slopes between thirty and forty-five degrees of steepness.”
“How do I tell that amount?”
“Those are like Black Diamond slopes at ski areas. Have you seen those?”
“Yeah.”
“Okay. You see a slope in the back-country that looks like it would be a Black Diamond run, stay off it. As for route planning, see these lines that are close together?”
“Yeah.”
“That amount of spacing represents a steep slope. And these lines that are farther apart represent a shallow slope. We’ll pay special attention as we plan your route.”
Joe went down the checkpoint list and marked every mountaintop with numbers to show the order. Then he slowly drew a route from one to the next.
Simone said, “How do you know this country so well?”
“I’ve skied back-country through there.”
“Do you like back-country skiing?” Simone asked.
“No, I don’t, especially the up part. Doesn’t mean I haven’t done it. I like to know the territory. And I do like the down part.”
“And you remember it so well that you can make paper models of the mountains?”
I interjected. “Didn’t Rell ever tell you that Joe is an Olympic medalist in ski racing?”