Page 38 of Mountain Challenge

Ry was the last one to buckle in before the helicopter took off. He let out a slow breath, looking around at his team. Hugo and Alex sat across from him, while Lorenz sat next to the window. Ry knew—though he couldn’t see either of them—that Beau was sitting up front, beside Tristan. It felt as if he was part of the team again, but of course, nothing had changed. His suspension had only been temporarily revoked.

“You sure your shoulder is okay, Ry?” Beau asked, on a channel just for the two of them.

“It’s fine. Glad to be on board.” And he was—glad to be with his team again, even though he knew this was only temporary. The investigation on his person had only just begun, and it would take time to clear him—assuming he was cleared in the end. The only reason he was here today was that this rescue required a trained medic and Jens Melkopf, the doctor in their sibling PGHM unit, was on holiday with his wife, Sarah.

As glad as he was to be back, Ry would have liked to finish the conversation with Isla. In his mind, he went through the things he knew. He knew she was okay, and that it was him she was pissed off at. But he had no idea what he’d done. He sighed, clearing his head. As much as he wanted to get this mission over with so he could go speak with her, he had to stop thinking about her now. You didn’t do this kind of work when your head wasn’t in the game, and he wasn’t about to let his team down.

There was a soft click as Beau changed back to a common frequency. “Okay, here’s what we know. A snowboarder fell into a crevasse in the Glacier de Lognan. Tristan will fly us as close as he can, as we need to extract him before night falls.”

Ry looked at his watch. It was coming in on four p.m. That was going to be tough. But it wasn’t safe to be anywhere near a crevasse at night.

“Was he alone?” Lorenz asked from the back. “Who called it in?”

“He was with a local guide and five other people. The guide had a satellite phone.”

Ry shook his head. Somebody should have a chat with that guide, once this was over. That was too many snowboarders to take off-piste. It was lucky only one of the snowboarders had fallen through.

“It’s a deep crevasse, but the snowboarder seems to be stuck at seventy or eighty feet. The guide has been able to communicate with him.”

Shit. Eighty feet was a long drop. “He’s conscious?” Ry asked. “What’s his status?”

“Probable broken pelvis, maybe a broken leg as well.”

Double shit. If he had a broken pelvis, getting him out of there was going to be hell. Ry didn’t envy the guy.

“There they are,” Tristan said. Ry looked out his window and saw a few dark shapes huddling together. As they saw thehelicopter, they all stood up and started waving their arms. Ry hoped the guide had had the sense to move them well away from the crevasse. “Okay. I’m taking her down. This is as close as I dare get.” Tristan elegantly maneuvered the helicopter to the ground. “Where would you like me,Commandant?”

“You stay near the craft, Tristan. Round up the other snowboarders and be ready to go. We’ll go in and get him out.”

“Sure thing, Beau.”

“We have less than an hour of light remaining,” Beau reminded them.

They all confirmed understanding. They could do this. An hour was more than enough time when Tristan had basically brought them right to the problem zone. They jumped out of the craft and spent a few minutes talking to the guide, confirming everything they thought they knew, before splitting into two teams to build snow anchors. He and Hugo on one end of the crevasse, Beau and Lorenz on the other side, because redundancy was the way to go when it came to crevasse rescue.

Hugo brought out a pick from his backpack, driving it into the snow at a 45-degree angle. Ry approached to attach the runner, making sure it was close to the surface, to avoid it pulling the picket out. When their side was as stable as they could make it, they reached out to connect it to the one Beau and Lorenz had built.

Ry held his breath while Lorenz took one last look at the setup. Though they all knew how to rig a snow anchor for crevasse rescue, Lorenz was the only one among them who’d run tests into the strength of different brands of snow anchors under different snow conditions. “Okay. It’ll hold.”

Let’s hope it does. Crevasse work could be tricky.

“Lower me,” Ry said, clipping himself in. There was no doubt in his mind that he had to be the one to go in. That’s why they’d called him in, for his expertise as a field medic.

“You have the drill and ice screws?” Beau asked.

Ry nodded. The drill was a heavy piece of equipment, but necessary for this particular operation. “Ready.” He waited while Beau, Alex and Hugo took up their positions, then leaned back into the hole, allowing his teammates to lower him inside. As the outside world disappeared, he was struck by the terrifying beauty of the blue abyss that surrounded him. But he wasn’t here to admire the view. Turning on his helmet light, he took note of the tracks the snowboarder had made as he fell. It looked like he’d somehow managed to “ride” the near-vertical ice wall. That had probably saved his life. That man had to have balls of steel. Ry was looking forward to meeting him.

“How are you doing, Ry?” Beau asked in his ear.

“I’m following his tracks. Keep me going, nice and steady.” Eventually, he saw him, lying on a small ledge. If he’d missed that ledge, he would have fallen an extra three or four hundred feet down, and there would have been no riding that wall. Ry asked the team to stop his descent and pulled himself over to where the man was lying. His eyes were closed, but Ry could see his chest rise and fall steadily. This guy was going to need to buy a lottery ticket.

“Sir, my name is Ry Harrison. I’m with the Chamonix PGHM,” he said, keeping his voice steady, not wanting to startle the man from his precarious perch.

He shouldn’t have worried. The snowboarder opened his eyes and stared calmly at him. “Terence. My name’s Terence,” the man said. If Ry hadn’t been able to read the pain in his expression, he would have thought the man was uninjured.

“Nice to meet you, Terence. It’s going to get a bit loud now. I need to secure myself to the wall, then I’ll come over and see how you’re doing.”

“Are you a doctor? I may have broken some bones.”

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