Mountain Rescue Lion

by Zoe Chant

  The trail turned a corner, and finally she had an unobstructed view of the mountain itself. As always, the first sight of the Veil took Cora's breath away. Sheets of blue-green ice spilled down the side of the mountain in a shimmering cascade, blindingly bright in the light of the morning sun.

  Above the Veil, the craggy stone wall of the mountain's East Face rose towards the sky. A soft blanket of snow covered the gentler slope of the South Face, where the hiking trail began.

  She'd managed to miss the safety briefing; people were already streaming out of the weathered stone building that doubled as Kalyanpur's clinic and its communication center. Every morning, Pasang, the town's only doctor and the person with the most reliable satellite uplink, gave a little briefing there with the day's weather report, and, more frequently than anyone liked, reports on the latest avalanche.

  Eric was coming out at the back of the group. When he saw her, he stopped so abruptly several people had to detour around him, a smile lighting up his face.

  "Cora! Hi!"

  "Hi!" Cora found herself smiling back. The simmering anger left over from her argument with Carpenter was finally melting away. "Did I miss anything important?"

  "There's a storm front coming in from the north. It's not supposed to hit us before early evening, but probably safer not to stay out too long today."

  "Didn't plan to," Cora said.

  She couldn't help a pang of worry. Carpenter hadn't come to the briefing, of course; did he know about the storm?

  But then, he probably had a satellite uplink of his own for the weather report. With what he charged his clients, he could certainly afford it.

  She finally spotted Simon among the milling hikers. He looked peeved, which was fair enough; she should've been here thirty minutes ago. She gave him an apologetic wave.

  "I gotta go. My climbing partner's waiting."

  "Maybe I'll see you on the mountain, then," Eric said. He reached up to push a strand of his tousled blond hair back from his forehead. It gave her an excellent view of just how broad and well-muscled his biceps was.

  I hope so; oh, God, yes, please; come climbing with me and also take me home and tear my clothes off.

  "Maybe, yes," Cora settled on, which was weak but still clearly the best out of the possible range of things she could have said.

  She turned away from Eric with regret and followed Simon down the trail that led to the bottom of the Veil. Someone tapped her on the shoulder from behind. Cora startled and turned around.

  "Tashi! Hi!" She pulled her friend into a hug. "Didn't know you'd be up here today."

  Tashi Sherpa grinned, the corners of her eyes crinkling. "Figured I'd get some climbing in while the weather's holding up. I'm getting out of shape with all this comfortable flying around."

  Cora rather doubted that. Tashi's face was tanned even darker than its usual bronze tone, speaking of the fact that she still spent plenty of time out in the mountains and the glare of the high-altitude sun. The pack on her back was half her size again, bulging with what looked like heavy equipment, although she carried it with no obvious sign of effort.

  "What are you doing with all that stuff?" Cora asked. "Thought you were out of the portering business for good."

  The first time she'd met Tashi, almost ten years ago, Tashi had been putting herself through school by working as a porter, carrying equipment up the mountain for tourists in the summer months. These days, she owned the only helicopter that offered regular flights to Nansing, and only hiked for pleasure.

  "Favor for a friend. Dorjee caught that stomach bug that's going round the village, and apparently they really need this stuff up in Camp One by noon." Tashi shrugged her shoulders, resettling the heavy weight of her pack.

  The Sherpas maintained a few semi-permanent camps on the mountain. Camp One, which lay just above the Veil, had a few wooden huts and a small research station; Camp Four, way up near the top of the mountain, was nothing but a small cluster of tents in a sheltered spot where travelers could take refuge if they got caught out by a storm.

  The two of them fell into step side by side. Tashi nodded towards Simon, who'd gone on ahead while the two of them had been chatting. She lowered her voice. "You still climbing with him? When are you going to find a partner you don't have to babysit every step up the mountain?"

  "Aww, he's not that bad," Cora said automatically.

  "Sure he isn't." Tashi knocked her shoulder gently against Cora's. "Your luck with climbing partners is almost as bad as mine with guys. Hey, speaking of guys! Who's that hottie you were talking to at the meeting?"

  "Tashi!" Cora hissed.

  Tashi gave her an unrepentant grin.

  Cora couldn't quite fight the smile that stole over her face at the thought of him. "His name's Eric."

  "Oh, Eric Peterson? That him? Carpenter was talking about him on the flight in. Doesn't like him."

  "Well, that's a recommendation right there," Cora said with a laugh. Anyone who didn't get along with Carpenter was only showing good sense, in her opinion.

  "I know, right?" Tashi sighed. "Goddamn Carpenter. Have you met that new client of his yet? Everhart? I don't know how Carpenter managed to find a client who's just as much of a condescending jerk as he is."

  Cora grimaced. "God knows. Was he rude to you?"

  Tashi shrugged. "Eh. So they're getting out of the helicopter, right, and I take one of the bags, and Everhart says 'Let me take that, that's much too heavy for a girl like you.'"

  Cora burst out in a laugh.

  "I know, right?" Tashi grinned. "As if I haven't carried packs heavier than him. And then Carpenter goes 'Oh, leave her. They have their pride, these mountain people.' Like, what, other people don't?"

  Cora winced.

  Tashi shrugged. "I wouldn't even mind him being such a blowhard, if he wasn't also such an incompetent guide. One of these days he's going to get someone killed up on the mountain."

  Cora looked down. She tried not to think of Andrew, up there with too little training and no time to acclimatize.

  "Let's just hope it's not today."

  "Yeah."

  They were both quiet for a few minutes, until they arrived at the fork in the trail where the hiking route split off to bypass the Veil.

  "Well, I gotta hurry," Tashi said. "Good luck with your climbing. You should ask Eric out for a drink when you come back down, he's hot."

  "Tashi!"

  "Well, he is!"

  Cora laughed. They shared another hug before Tashi turned away.

  Simon was already waiting at the base of the Veil, setting out their equipment. Cora stepped into the familiar weight of her harness, laden with carabiners and safety equipment. She unclipped her ice axes from her pack and strapped the crampons to her boots. The rest of the morning's irritation was falling away with the familiar ritual.

  Simon took up the rope secured to her harness.

  "Ready?"

  "Ready."

  Cora tilted her head back, looking up. The Veil stretched up above her, sheets of ice rising higher than the eye could see, glittering in the sun.

  She swung her axe and felt it land with a satisfying crunch. The sharp tips of her crampons bit into the ice, giving her solid purchase on the almost vertical wall. Left foot, right foot, another swing of the axe—and then she was off the ground, and the world fell away beneath her.

  Sometimes it took a while to warm up her muscles, but today she fell into the rhythm of climbing immediately, naturally. The ice was as close to perfect as she'd ever seen it, solid and crystal clear.

  Every couple of feet she'd pause to place an ice screw in the wall and attach her rope to its clip. If she fell, those clips would be the only thing between her and certain death. But with ice this good, she didn't have to worry whether the screws would hold her weight. Cora smiled, looking up along the blue wall of it towering above her, inviting her up and up.

  She swung her axe, pulled herself up—and was almost yanked off the wall when the rope a
ttached to her harness abruptly pulled tight. For a moment, she hung only by her grip on a single axe.

  Cora tightened her hand. She kicked her left foot hard into the wall until the tip of her crampons caught, taking some of the weight off her arm, and finally managed to stabilize herself.

  Cora leaned her forehead against the cool sheet of ice and let out an explosive breath.

  "Simon! Rope!" she yelled.

  Below her, Simon finally let out the rope he'd held too tightly—too much rope. It dangled slackly beneath her, tangling around her feet. Cora twisted her head over her shoulder.

  "Simon!"

  With a guilty start, Simon took up the rope to its proper length: loose enough to give her freedom to keep climbing, tight enough so it wouldn't get in her way.

  Cora sighed. She still hadn't gotten used to climbing with someone she had to micro-manage on his belaying technique, of all things. For all his faults, her previous climbing partner Robert had been a capable and conscientious belayer.

  Of course, Robert had also had an explosive temper and a tendency to pick fights with other climbers. Worse, he'd had a terrible habit of second-guessing her decisions on the mountain, even though she was the more experienced of the two of them. It had put the both of them in danger more than once.

  Before Robert, there'd been Michael, who'd constantly overestimated his own limits—until the day when his recklessness had finally ended with a broken ankle and she'd had to all but carry him off the mountain. Before Michael, Anthony, who'd consistently been an hour late to every plan they'd ever made, and usually showed up with half the important equipment missing.

  She thought of Tashi's words again: Your luck with climbing partners is almost as bad as mine with guys. Well, it wasn't like Cora's luck with guys was any better. In fact…

  No. She wasn't going to think about that now. She was out on the mountain, in brilliant sunshine, climbing the best ice route in the world. She didn't need a partner to be happy.

  When she'd climbed the first pitch and reached the end of her rope she anchored herself with an ice screw and belayed Simon while he climbed up behind her, helped along by the rope she'd fixed and the gear she'd left in the wall. They made their way up the wall like that, Cora leading and Simon following along behind.

  Halfway up the Veil, Cora paused with her crampons securely planted in the ice and her rope safely clipped in, and leaned back in her harness for a short break.

  With a jolt she spotted Eric climbing with his nephew on a different part of the Veil. Eric was the lead climber, which made sense if his nephew wasn't very experienced; they were just about to come up on one of the trickiest parts of the route.

  Eric moved quickly, with a sure, steady grace that spoke of years of experience. He was a lot taller and more broad-shouldered than the typical climber. That wasn't usually considered an advantage in a sport that involved hauling your own weight up by your fingertips. But Eric was clearly strong enough to make up for the increased weight, and his long arms and legs gave him impressive reach. It was a pleasure to see him climb.

  Cora watched as Eric climbed up towards the Nose, an overhanging rock that jutted out through the ice. Beside the rock, the ice tended to be rotten and soft, honeycombed with gaps where the rock reflected the heat of the sun. Cora waited to see how he'd handle the obstacle.

  Eric climbed up straight towards the Nose. Cora frowned. The ice got worse the closer you got to the rock. Usually, people tried to give it as much distance as they could. It seemed like a stupid mistake, which was completely out of sync with the enormous level of skill he'd shown so far.

  Eric kept climbing until he was directly beneath the overhanging rock. Cora watched, baffled, as he twisted around and clipped both axes to his backpack, freeing up his hands. What on Earth was he doing—

  Eric leaped. Cora gasped as he launched himself backwards off the wall, his hands reaching out for the tip of the jutting rock.

  God. No one could make that jump, not taking off from a vertical wall of ice, not laden down with a heavy backpack—

  Her eyes automatically followed the line of Eric's rope, clipped in to a screw a dozen feet below; the fall wouldn't be pleasant, but it wasn't going to kill him.

  Eric's outstretched hand touched the tip of the rock. For a second he hung by the fingers of a single hand, his body swinging out into free air with the momentum of his jump. Every muscle in his body tightened.

  Cora watched with her mouth hanging open as Eric hauled himself up by his fingertips and climbed up on the rock in a single, powerful motion.

  He stood there for a moment, his shoulders rising and falling with the rhythm of his breath. And then he grinned and walked up the narrow, sloping rock as comfortably as a man taking a Sunday stroll.

  The whole scene startled a gleeful laugh out of her. God, what a jump. The sheer strength it must have taken to pull that off!

  She kept watching in delight as he reached the solid, unmarred ice above the rock, unclipped his axes and went back to his climb.

  What a joy it'd be to climb with this man.

  "Yo, Cora, you alive up there?" Simon called.

  Cora startled. Right. She'd been hanging here, unmoving, halfway up the wall, for the better part of ten minutes. Now that she thought about it, she could feel the cold creeping up into her fingers and toes from the ice.

  She shook herself loose. "Sorry!"

  The sun's rays were already beginning to gain strength. They needed to get off this wall before the mid-day sun started melting the ice.

  ***

  Eric leaned back in his harness with a satisfied sigh. They'd finally cleared the trickiest part of the route. Josh was doing well, and they'd been making steady progress, but coaching him through the steepest section of the climb had still taken a lot of concentration. Eric figured he'd earned a few minutes' break.

  The morning's bitter cold had started to ease. Eric tilted his face into the sun. With a start he realized that Cora was climbing just a few dozen feet away, a little below them and to the left. She'd picked one of the most difficult routes. Climbing with Josh, Eric had deliberately avoided that part of the icefall, but Cora was obviously up to the challenge.

  The sight of her jolted through him with almost physical force. She'd pushed her hood back for a better view. A few strands of her long blonde hair had come loose from her ponytail, streaming out behind her like a banner every time she swung herself further up the mountain.

  Eric had spent a lot of time around skilled climbers, but he'd never seen anyone move the way she did. She was so graceful on the ice, every motion sure and calculated, not a bit of energy wasted.

  He watched her for several long minutes, spell-bound, before Josh brought him back to himself with a tug on the rope. "Uncle Eric? Are you going up or what?"

  Even as he focused his attention back onto the ice in front of him, he couldn't help feeling aware of Cora's presence in the back of his mind: wondering whether maybe she would look over, whether she'd watch him the way he'd watched her. It made him want to show her something worth watching.

  It was certainly motivating. He hadn't climbed this well or this quickly in a while.

  By the time he and Josh reached the top of the Veil, Cora was still a hundred feet below him, finding her way through the most difficult section of the icefall.

  He couldn't tear his eyes away as she weaved between the fragile patches of ice, every swing of her axes placed with care and precision.

  Eric startled as someone tapped his shoulder. He whirled around. Josh held up his hands in mock surrender, laughing. "You were a million miles away! Come have some tea with us."

  Josh had joined a small group of Sherpas who were taking a break from carrying down equipment from one of the higher camps; someone was already holding out a cup for him. Eric reluctantly turned away from Cora. It was an almost physical wrench to take his eyes off her.

  They spread out to sit on a few small boulders. It was good to get a bit of rest
and a chance to peel out of his by-now stifling layers of cold weather gear; the sun was out in full force now. But he couldn't tear his eyes away from the top of the cliff, waiting for Cora to emerge.

  ***

  The upper part of the Veil was always the most difficult on this route, the ice brittle and uneven. Cora wove and twisted between obstacles, feeling her way from one solid patch of ice to the next. The placement of her hands and feet took all her attention. She tried not to let thoughts of Eric distract her until she'd finally reached the top of the Veil and Simon was scrambling over the ridge behind her.

  Eleven am; they'd made pretty good time for a climb this difficult. The sun hung high in the sky, and the snow and ice reflected its rays back from every direction.

  A few hours ago it had been cold enough to make her teeth ache. Now she was sweating through her layers of thermal clothes. She yanked her jacket off impatiently.

  Eric sat on a boulder a couple hundred feet further up the trail. He'd stripped down to a sleeveless t-shirt. Cora's eyes caught helplessly on the powerful muscles of his arms.

  Eric raised one hand in a wave when he noticed her gaze. "Good climbing!" he called.

  "You too!"

  Go up to him. Say hi. What's the worst that can happen?

  Cora already knew Eric was a friendly guy, and she usually wasn't shy about striking up conversations with other climbers. But he was just so damn good-looking. Even the thought of going up there and trying to flirt with him made a blush creep over her face.

  Come on. You do scarier things on a daily basis.

  But her feet felt rooted to the spot by nerves.

  "Hey, is that Sasha's group?" Simon said behind her, startling her out of her thoughts.

  Cora turned to look where he was pointing. A small group of hikers was coming down the Eastern trail, three of them taking turns to support the fourth, who was stumbling drunkenly. Squinting against the glare of the sun, she thought she did recognize the group's leader as Sasha, an experienced mountaineer she'd hiked with before. His group had been planning to climb the sheer rock face of the mountain's eastern side. Had one of them gotten hurt?