Wood poisoning? said Bob. Wood poisoning was skier versus tree.
Could there be some skis buried under there? said Sonny.
Who knows? said Mike. Ive given up speculating. Im always wrong.
Come on, speculate, said Bob. Make something up.
Mike shifted from one foot to the other. Corpses Maximus said no guesses. It plants things in peoples heads.
Nothing gets planted in this head, said Bob. Nothing at all.
Mike and Sonny laughed.
The wind rose, whipping around them, fighting their balance. Mike and Bob had their back to it, buffering Sonny from the worst.
Hey, shouted Sonny, pointing to a figure higher up the peak.
Bob shook his head. Same idiots, different season. You could paper Breck with Get off the mountain by midday or we will shoot to kill and these people would still not get out of their beds in time to haul ass.
Lasco didnt hear him and was waving from where he stood, holding something in the air, fighting to be heard over Bob and the wind.
Oh, shit, said Sonny. He lunged through the gap between Bob and Mike, lifting his spotting scope to his eye. He saw a man on back-country skis, moving east-west across a snowfield. Bob, Sonny and Mike stood mesmerized, a combined weight of fear suspending any motion. Above them, the wind had raked the promontories, packing snow into ravines and chutes, pressing it deep into every hollow. The skier didnt know what he was crossing; the difference between fallen and driven snow. He didnt know that the black rock beneath him was a magnet to the afternoon sun. He didnt know that the underside of the snow was heating up, turning to water, trickling downwards, weakening the platform beneath him.
Shooting cracks broke out under his feet, followed by the desperate sound of air rushing out of snow.
Jesus Christ! roared Bob. Avalanche!
Go right, roared Mike, Go right.
In seconds, a huge plume of white exploded into the sky as thousands of pounds of compacted snow shifted, plummeting toward them, four foot deep, warming as it moved, gaining the momentum to bury everything in its path, a deafening blast in the tranquil afternoon.
For seconds that felt longer, Mike was flying in an exhilarating powdered-snow rush. He was a snowboarder, busting a huge air, applause drowning out his proud cries. But somewhere inside, his instinct kicked in and he started to swim.
Bob felt like a rug had been pulled from under his feet, a rug he had been very happy with, the type that had protected him from the cold concrete underneath.
Lasco had descended barely four feet from the corpse when it was dislodged, hitting him hard in the back, forcing the wind from his lungs, sending them both plunging toward the ridge below.
Sonny became a centerpiece to the erupting snow, the height of its power, quickly descending to its crushing, savage depth.
In ten seconds, it was over. The snow had settled twenty feet deep at the toe of the slide. Minutes passed before its powdery shower lifted, leaving in its wake a desolate white vacuum.
4
Mike Delaney knew that he wasnt driving this motion, he was at the mercy of it. There was no skill to the rotations of his body. The sound he was hearing was the avalanches freight-train roar. If there was an audience that wasnt being swept up and deposited all around him, they would have seen a spectacular final display but would have turned away for the crash landing that was strangely void of sound.
A waitress kept trying to serve Sonny Bryant cocktails. His hand shook as he took each one and dropped it to the ground.
What is your problem? she kept saying.
You dont get it. Im freezing, he kept answering, again reaching out a shaking hand. Im freezing. Is this hot? He dropped the glass again.
What is your problem?
He jerked awake. Im freezing.
With the exception of one gloved hand, Sonny Bryant lay completely buried.
Denis Lasco was on his back, pinned beneath his charge, the pair taking the shape of a skewed cross on the snow. The corpses vitreous mask had cracked open, leaving a pale cheek an inch from Lascos lips. As he breathed frigid air through his nose, a slim strand of her hair was sucked against his nostrils. Lascos head shook violently, struggling to exhale it away. But the rise of his chest was restricted. In his panic, his neck muscles went rigid, supporting him long enough to observe a contributory factor to the womans death; a massive exit wound. A mash-up mix of reds and blacks had been ripped through the back of her snowsuit. It was the last thing Lasco saw before his breath exploded out of him and the picture went black.
When he was fourteen years old, Bob Gage had to dissect a cows eyeball in biology class. He remembered how it flinched under his scalpel, how he fought to secure it, finally piercing what he expected would be soft, yielding flesh. But it crunched as the blade hit its center. What the butcher had given him was a frozen eyeball. And it had turned Bobs stomach more than cutting into the flesh of something that could have oozed.
Bob now stared at the heavy white world that surrounded him, possessed by the icy cold of his eyeballs, no less sickening now than a thirty-year-old memory. He knew nobody would be dissecting his eyeballs if he didnt make it out of this, but he knew a sharp blade would be coming into his dead world and it was more than he could take. You cant scream from the top of your lungs when theyre searching for oxygen that isnt there. But Sheriff Bob Gage gave it his best shot.
For the second time that afternoon, an all-call went out and pagers across Summit County beeped, one of them under the snow of Quandary Peak. Twenty volunteers were called to a scene most of them were already at. The ones who hadnt made it first time around were paged again and told why, this time, they might want to show up.
Bob could see something blue sticking out of the snow. He turned on his side and rolled on to his knees. He crawled uphill toward it, staggering to his feet when he saw it was a gloved hand. He trampled a path to it, then fell down and started digging.
Were going to get you out, he said. Hang in there. Hang in there. For a moment, he thought it might be the corpse. He pulled off the glove and felt a lukewarm hand and a weak pulse.
Shit, come on, he said, replacing the glove, working harder to tunnel an airway to whoever lay beneath the surface.
Im getting there, he said. Im on my way.
He could hear desperate, muffled groans. He looked around into the blank white.
Help, he shouted. Someone help.
He kept going, scooping back snow, his arms trembling, his heart pumping hard. His body was on fire. He didnt stop. He couldnt. In his panic, he couldnt pin down the passing of time; did he still have a chance, or was it too late? Had he been there for wasted hours or just minutes? Finally, he heard a huge intake of breath.
Thank God, he said. Thank God. Jesus Christ. Whos down there?
The voice was faint. Sonny.
OK, Sonny. You wait right there He paused. I mean, Im going to get help. Youre going to get out of there, OK?
The voice was faint. Sonny.
OK, Sonny. You wait right there He paused. I mean, Im going to get help. Youre going to get out of there, OK?
He heard a muffled reply. He sat back on the snow, his breath heaving. Jesus Christ. He grabbed the radio from his belt and radioed down to the trailhead to call in Flight-for-Life, the medevac helicopter run out of Frisco, ten miles north of Breckenridge.
I need to go check on Lasco, he said to Sonny. Im sure my buddy, Mountain Mike, is already back at the office.
Further down the slope, by a small stand of trees, Denis Lasco lay on his back on top of the snow. Bob dropped to his knees and checked him for a pulse. He found one. But he couldnt rouse Lasco.
The gentle snowfall quickly turned heavy.
Lasco, you wake the fuck up by the time Im back, he said, hurrying up the slope to Sonny, slumping to the snow beside him. He pulled off one of his snow-shoes and used it to start digging. In ten minutes, Sonnys head and shoulders were exposed. But the rest of his body was compressed so tightly, Bob had to hide his fear.
We need to keep you hydrated, he said. He took a bottle of water from his jacket and held it to Sonnys mouth. Sonnys eyes started to close.
No you dont, said Bob. Wakey, wakey, OK? Jesus, Im the one whos just done the physical exertion. If anyone gets to sleep here, its me. He wiped his sleeve across his forehead.
Sonny smiled a drunken smile, but opened his eyes wide. He sipped more water.
Good, said Bob. Keep looking at me. Its not easy, I know
Sonny blinked instead of smiling. Bob scanned the area for Mike, but found nothing. Ive never been in an avalanche in my life, said Bob. Its the scariest fucking shit He laughed through the panic rising in his chest. Sonnys skin was almost gray, his eyes shadowed and sunken, his lips pale and dry. Sonny was failing.
Bobs radio struck up. A calm voice said, Flightsre on their way.
Thats great, said Bob. He looked up and down the slope. They were near the bottom, but there was no ground nearby at the right angle for a helicopter to land. And by the time the SAR team made it up to them from the trailhead, another half-hour would have gone by.
Sonny Bryant had got a perfect score in his EMT exams, so he knew exactly how he was going to die. He knew that the kind, smiling sheriff beside him knew how he was going to die. His limbs were crushed. As soon as the weight of the snow was taken away, toxins would rush to his bloodstream. His kidneys wouldnt take it. There were no IV fluids. There was only a half-liter of water that was almost gone. That was it. It wasnt enough. Bob Gage was holding his hand. Should he look him in the eye when they pulled him free? He didnt really want to leave Bob with an image that could haunt him for life. But he didnt want to stare into the blank white snow. Just in case wherever he was going was blank too.
5
The Summit County Medical Center stood on Highway 9 in Frisco. The Flight-for-Life helicopter hadnt moved from its hangar outside. Two hours after the avalanche hit, an ambulance had carried Denis Lasco and Mike Delaney from the trailhead. Lascos deputy had arrived to take Sonny Bryant to the morgue in the van he used to call the Deathmobile.
Bob Gage stood by the window in Mike Delaneys hospital room. Mike was sitting on the edge of his bed, dressed in a navy sweatshirt and baggy track pants, pushing his feet into sneakers.
We were pretty fucking lucky up there, said Mike.