Chapter 30
Jayden bounced the highly decorated jar in her hand and addressed the group. “In here are sixteen balls. Eight different colours. You’ll each come up and select one. Matching colours equals your pairing for the first challenge. Everyone clear?”
A chorus of grunts and affirmations circled the base camp, and, one at a time, the climbers stood to draw their lots. Some pairs were clearly happier with their selections than others, Hunter and Lonnie, and Sky and Taylor being the happiest in the group, while Kimi looked decidedly unhappy as Brooke’s partner. No one, it seemed, was happy she was still here, and no one wanted to work with her. It was the main reason they’d developed this chance game to determine the challenge pairs. No one could claim they were being targeted or not given a fair chance.
“The first challenge begins tomorrow at 0700. Pairs will then depart at ninety-minute intervals. Understood?”
Again, everyone acknowledged her.
“You have twenty-two hours to prepare yourselves for your ascent, to research your route using the materials we have here in camp, and to gather your supplies. Any questions?”
“Yeah, what are we climbing?” Brooke shouted as she leant against the ice wall surrounding the encampment.
Jayden nodded. “I was just getting to that.” She looked at Rhian, hoping to catch her eye, but she refused to look over at her. Still. “This week’s challenge is to summit Guillaumet and return to base camp. Teams will be timed from the moment they leave base camp until they return. Got it?”
A series of yups and ayes greeted her.
“Points are awarded not just for times, but for the technical difficulty of the route chosen. So a slower time on a harder route, for example, may gain you more points to put you ahead on the leader board,” Rhian said. “But picking a hard route doesn’t automatically mean you’ll still beat someone who choses an easier path to the summit. It’s a combination of the two factors. Think of it like a decathlon event, ladies and gentlemen. Time makes points. Distance makes points, technical skill makes points. Points make winners. Adversely, any pairs who do not complete the challenge will automatically be in the bottom four.”
Jayden watched as each climber nodded, a thoughtful look on everyone’s face.
“For twelve of you, when you get back to base camp, that’s week one completed. The bottom four will face the climb-off,” Rhian said.
Murmurs of discontent wafted on the cold wind. Even in the summer, the maximum temperature on the glacier was an average 5 degrees Celsius, and the wind was always cold.
Rhian stepped forward. “The climb-off is a series of sprint climbs to determine the two contestants up for the public vote. Voting will open at the completion of the sprints and will be open for twenty-four hours. The climber with the lowest number of public votes will leave the competition.”
Jayden picked up a handful of small dry bags and handed them out, while Rhian took the other half. “In the pack, you have a watch with a GPS tracker in it, a mic pack, and a helmet and/or body cam. You must have these on you anytime you leave base camp. These are for your protection and locating you in case of emergencies as well as for recording purposes. If you do not have them with you, you could be asked to leave the program. Am I making myself clear?”
“Crystal,” Luiji said as Jayden handed him his pack.
“Good.” She winked at him. “Now, camera crews and safety personnel are already moving into locations to get shots of you along the way. Some will remain static, others will move with you, drop off, return, whatever they wish to get the shots they need. There are also drone cameras and cameras already set up at nest locations. Do not mess with the cameras, or, again, you could be asked to leave the program.” She handed her last pack to Brooke. “Are we all clear on the rules?” Everyone answered except Brooke. Jayden kept hold of the bag Brooke had wrapped her fingers around. “Are we clear?” she asked again.
“Perfectly,” Brooke ground out through gritted teeth.
“Excellent.” Jayden offered her a smile that was probably more of a grimace. She let go of the strap. “Guidebooks are on the table. Supplies are in the store tent. Remember that between the two of you, you must carry everything you need to complete this task and get back to base camp safely. That means emergency kit, avalanche gear, and basic rations at the minimum. There will be no free soloing on any of these climbs. That means gear, ropes, and helmets at any time you are climbing.”
She watched the expectant faces of the group. Excitement buzzed through the air. They were ready. She was ready.
“Let’s climb!”
Jayden dropped down onto the ice bench opposite Angela and Rhian. “Last team just set off,” she told them. It was just after five thirty in the evening, and the last team off would have to hustle to make it to a good overnighting spot before dark.
“Great,” Angela said. “We’ve gotten some great footage so far.”
“Ang,” Simon called from the other side of the encampment. He waved his arms frantically. “We’ve got a problem.”
The three of them were on their feet and running across the slick surface as fast as they could. He stood behind a small bank of monitors they’d set up to review the drone cameras and remotely activate the body cams when necessary. He pointed to the footage coming from a drone camera: a gaping hole in the glacier filled the centre of the screen, a jagged scar on the white surface with a tiny, dark shape sprawled flat against the ice from what looked like a few feet away.
“Fuck!” Jayden shouted. “Who is it?” A knot twisted in her gut, and she swallowed back the bile rising in her throat. Not again. She couldn’t lose anyone again.
“That’s Kimi that we can see.” Simon operated a console that looked like the controls of a toy car and zoomed the picture in closer until they could see Kimi no more than her body’s length—all five foot two inches—from the edge of the crevasse. She had her crampons and ice axe dug into the ice to stop her from moving.
“Where’s Brooke?” Angela asked.
Simon zoomed out again so they could see the red-and-purple rope from Kimi’s waist disappear over the lip and into the void.
Rhian stared at the screen. “Shit. This can’t be happening. This can’t be happening, not now.”
“How far away are they?” Jayden demanded, running in her head through a catalogue of gear that was left in the store tent and gauging how quickly she could be ready to go.
“Too far,” Angela said. “They’ve been on the ice for almost two hours now.”
Jayden nodded. “She’ll be cold, but she might be okay.” Jayden added space blankets to the mental list she was preparing.
“No,” Simon said as he zoomed out and positioned the drone towards the edge of the crevasse. The torrent of water was the first thing they could see. “Moulin.”
“Fuck.” Two hours under the ice-cold glacier stream would be more than anyone could survive. I should have seen this coming. I should have anticipated this. That’s the whole fucking reason I’m here. Why didn’t I see this coming? “How close are any of the other teams? Camera crews? Anybody? There has to be someone closer that can get there to help them.” Blaming herself would have to wait. First, she had to do everything she could, everything humanly possible, to save Brooke. She was a pain in the arse, but no one deserved to die like this.
Angela sat at the desk beside Simon and clicked on the laptop, quickly bringing up a screen covered in little dots, the GPS locations of everyone not in base camp. “Nearest is a camera crew with Santiago, maybe an hour’s hike away.”
“Get me Santiago on the radio.”
“Look,” Rhian said, pointing to the screen.
Jayden stopped mentally berating herself long enough to follow Rhian’s finger and smiled as Simon zoomed in on Kimi again and switched on her mic so they could hear.
“Damn it, Brooke, you piece of crap, stop screaming and get a Prusik on that line. Get ready to haul your ass out of there.”
They didn’t need to turn on Brooke’s mic. They could hear her screams over the levels on Kimi’s mic—and the thunderous torrent of water—loud and clear. She was clearly hysterical as Kimi secured first one, then a second ice screw into place on either side of her.
“I mean it, Brooke. I’m not dragging you out of that pit on my own.”
“Good girl, Kimi,” Jayden whispered to herself. Kimi was a strong, capable climber. She’d performed well in each of the training scenarios Jayden had put them through, and Jayden could see already that she was performing well under the pressure of a real-life situation. She was securing the line to give Brooke the stability she’d need to self-rescue. “You brilliant, brilliant woman.” The gnawing ache in Jayden’s gut eased enough for her to breathe properly. Blood rushed away from her extremities, and her fingers and toes began to tingle. Ignoring the stabbing ache, she shook out her hands, thrilled when the sensation began to return.
“Could she?” Simon asked. “I mean, all Brooke seems to be doing is screaming. What if she can’t get herself out of there? Is Kimi strong enough to do it?” He glanced at Jayden over his shoulder.
“Doubtful,” Jayden whispered. “Brooke’s got thirty-plus pounds on Kimi. Trying to haul your own body weight out of one of those things is bloody hard work—for some, impossible.”
“Can we get Brooke’s bodycam on so we can see what’s going on down there?” Angela asked.
Simon held the drone steady over Kimi’s head and pressed a button on another monitor. Shaky footage spinning around in slow circles filled the screen. The slow turn was enough to make Jayden dizzy, but she concentrated on the cascade of water flowing over Brooke and the fact Brooke was doing nothing to help herself but cling to the rope about her middle. The fast flow of the water over her had no doubt drenched her to the core and would not be helping her focus or function, but unless she made some attempt to self-rescue, the moulin was likely to claim her for its own.
“Brooke, you fucking crybaby, you’re the one who’s always telling us how fucking awesome you are. Snap out of it, and show us what you’re made of!” Kimi quickly tied a series of knots to secure the belay line that was holding Brooke to her and stopping her from falling into the icy waters at the heart of the glacial watermill. “Come on!”
After just a couple of minutes, she managed to free herself from the belay, now secured by the ice screws, and shuffle to the lip of the crevasse on her belly.
“Are you kidding me?” Kimi yelled into the thunderous echo of the water cascade. “You’ve not even got a fucking Prusik set up.”
Brooke didn’t answer. The screaming had stopped, but she seemed frozen. From cold or fear, they wouldn’t know until she was out of the crevasse. And if she didn’t snap out of it, the chances of that happening were getting slimmer by the minute. It wouldn’t take long before hypothermia would set in under the ice-cold glacial water and inside what was effectively a deep freeze down there. Jayden’s hands were turning cold again, the prickle of pins and needles itching her nerves in sympathy for Brooke’s plight.
“Are you really just going to sit there and die?” Kimi screamed into the cavern.
Brooke didn’t respond. It seemed beyond her. Just as they were beyond Jayden’s help. She glanced at Rhian. Her face had gone grey, her hands were fisted against her jaw, and she seemed unable to tear her eyes from the screen. Jayden wanted to put an arm about her shoulder and tell her it would be okay. But she couldn’t lie to herself, and she couldn’t lie to Rhian.
In that moment, it struck her. She had anticipated this. That was why she had drilled them and drilled them. She’d given every one of them the best chance they could have of getting themselves out of the situation they were in. She’d taught them the skills and let them practice. Now it was up to them. They had to pull it together and save themselves. Their actions, their decisions, their will were the only things that could make a difference now. Live or die…it was their choice.
“Santiago’s on his way to their location,” Angela said.
“Warn him,” Jayden said, her voice deep and throaty. “It might be a retrieval.”
Angela only nodded. None of them said anything as they stood and stared in horror at the screens and the drama playing out. Jayden’s heart went out to Kimi. She’d done everything right. She’d secured the line, she’d anchored her buddy, and she was trying to garner her cooperation. But it was up to Brooke to pull herself out, just like Jayden had taught her. Less than two weeks ago, they’d drilled this very skill, just in case the world opened up beneath them and asked what they were truly made of.
Kimi knew. It was written on her face. They could see every line of anguish through the drone’s camera. She roared her anger at the futility of it, at the impotence hanging on the other end of the rope.
“Not today, you fucking useless piece of shit. You’re not leaving me to live with that on my conscience.” She upended her backpack and began sorting her gear.
“What’s she doing?” Angela asked Jayden.
Jayden peered at the screen, edging closer to see the gear Kimi was setting aside. She watched as Kimi assembled a secondary anchor point, fastening a ratcheting Prusik to the line and anchor before adding a short-locking Prusik. She fixed a webbing strap to the secondary anchor and assembled her lines.
“She’s set up a ratcheting pulley system,” Rhian said in awe.
“She’s going to pull her out?” Simon asked. “Really?”
“She’s damn well going to try.” Jayden crossed her fingers and leant closer still to the screen, wishing she could be there to help her, but pride for the tiny Japanese woman blossomed in her chest. She had heart. Stuck between the hard choice and no choice, she was going to do the only thing she could think of. She was going to try what each of them thought impossible.
Kimi set her feet on the ice and used her body weight like she was pulling on a rowing machine at the gym to inch the rope up through her system. Brooke’s bodycam jerked as she rose a few inches. Kimi shuffled her hands down the rope and set herself again. She groaned as she pulled, her hands wrapped around the rope to prevent it slipping through her fingers.
“You are not dying on me today.” Kimi gritted her teeth and roared again. Slowly, inch by painful inch, she hauled Brooke’s body out of the crevasse. When Brooke’s head broke the lip of the crack, Kimi fell onto her back, panting.
They watched, waiting, hoping Brooke would now pull herself over the edge and begin to help herself. Still she didn’t. Kimi, apparently fuelled by nothing but piss and vinegar, grabbed the back of her jacket and dragged her over the bank.
“So much for you winning this thing, asshole. The rest of us should just piss off home, hey?” Kimi groused through heavy breaths as she finally wrestled Brooke onto solid ground. “Now get your wet clothes off before you freeze to death and waste the bloody effort.”
Brooke still didn’t move. Simon zoomed in on her face. Her teeth were chattering, her lips had a blue tinge to them, and her arms were wrapped tightly around her body.
“Don’t make me strip your clothes off too, damn it. You’re taking the piss now, Shields. I mean it.”
It would be comical to watch the tiny climber struggle to get Brooke out of her wet clothes if the potential consequences of her not doing so weren’t so dire. Frostbite, hypothermia, and death were all still very real possibilities for Brooke. But Kimi was doing everything right. She was doing everything possible to keep the woman not only alive, but whole.
Jayden had lost track of how long it had taken Kimi to get Brooke out of the crevasse, then out of her clothes, into dry spares, and under a wind shelter while she made them a hot drink to warm them both. She looked at the timestamp on the video feeds. It had to have been an hour? More? She was so proud of the young woman that she just wanted to get to her and hug her. But that would have to wait. The sun would be setting soon, and they couldn’t possibly get back to camp before then. And there was no question that they were coming back to camp. Brooke looked in no state to continue across the glacier, never mind attempt a summit climb.
Santiago radioed with an update. They were safe and hunkered down for the night. They were almost three hours from base camp and would head back at first light. Brooke had, in his opinion, mild hypothermia, but she would be fine, if Kimi didn’t kill her before they returned to camp. Their task failure was going to drop them both into the climb-off.
And that just didn’t sit well for Jayden. Kimi didn’t deserve to face the vote because of firstly an accident and then her climbing partner’s inaction. What she’d achieved was a greater feat than successfully completing the Fitz Roy Traverse, as far as Jayden was concerned. She’d saved a life. She’d kept her head and saved the person relying on her.
Caught between a rock and a hard place, few others would have reacted as well as Kimi had in that situation. Fewer still would have been able to achieve it. Now she would face the climb-off and possibly the public vote. It wasn’t fair. It wasn’t right. And Jayden’s sense of honour simply couldn’t let it stand. She didn’t think the other competitors would stomach it either. But she couldn’t see Brooke admitting her weakness to the group, nor Kimi admitting her act of heroism.
Everyone deserved to know what had happened. For one thing, they could all learn from it, should the situation arise again. And as the weather continued to warm, the chances of more crevasses opening up through the filming only grew. Safety was her priority. And that meant more than just preparing those out on the ice as best as she could; it meant keeping those who couldn’t cope off it too, no matter what it took to achieve that. After all, Brooke had put them in the situation where Jayden couldn’t contemplate ejecting her from the competition for straightforward incompetence. That was never going to be allowed to stand.
But there was always another way. You just had to be adaptable…and occasionally a little creative.
Jayden approached Angela and Rhian. “Ladies, I have a proposal.”
Rhian cocked her head. “What’s that?”
It was the most Rhian had spoken directly to her all day. She smiled, hoping they could get back to some semblance of normalcy. But the way Rhian quickly looked away from her told Jayden volumes. She sighed before she said, “We all know the rules. Failure to complete means bottom four.”
Angela nodded a then stared, her jaw dropping slack. “Damn.” She turned and looked out across the ice in the direction that Kimi and Brooke were now waiting out the night. “Kimi doesn’t deserve that.”
Simon squinted at them. “It wasn’t exactly Brooke’s fault that glacier opened up under her either.”
“True, but her actions after that could have made things a lot better than they were. She was trained for a scenario just like this one,” Angela said. “She could have self-rescued, or at least aided in her own rescue. Jayden’s drilled every single one of us, you and me included, in what to do in that very situation. She didn’t even try. She could have got herself dry and warm again without much fuss and been preparing with Kimi to complete the challenge. She isn’t. She’s given up.”
Simon opened his mouth to make another point, but Rhian spoke first. “What’s your plan?”
“Well, I thought we might let the other contestants get a look at this footage.”
“With what in mind?”
She shrugged. “A training demonstration. They all deserve to see what happened here, as a demonstration of a single-man rescue technique. Big-screen it when we get back to El Chaltén.”
Jayden watched her for a second and saw the germ of the idea take shape in her mind. She could see the moment Rhian realised what Jayden hoped would result from her little show-and-tell.
“Okay. A training demo.”
Jayden smiled. She just hoped her instincts about the rest of the team were correct. Kimi didn’t deserve to be in the position Brooke had put her in, and there was no place for weakness or sentimentality on the mountain. Hard choice or no choice. Jayden didn’t even have to think about it.