Winter Tales

Chapter 12 - Whiteout

"What's going on up there?" I ask him.

Fear wraps itself around my heart like an icy fist. The two figures I can now tell apart when I look back uphill are clearly not Lily, since they seem too big for that.

Did something happen to her?

"The kid literally got blown off her feet by a gust of wind," Will says.

He has let himself fall forward and is now kneeling in the snow, looking up at me.

"Is she okay?" I ask.

"Yeah. They're just coaxing her to continue. Giving her a pep talk and stuff," he replies easily.

His nonchalance is quite baffling. After all, he is one of the reasons why we are in this situation.

A blast of cold wind whips past us, causing the nearby trees to groan under its force. I hadn't even noticed how not only the fog but also the wind has picked up over the past few minutes. I must have been too concentrated on staying on the slope for that.

Often, being at the top the mountain is where one is most exposed to stormy weather. The further down you get, the less severe it becomes. But what with the weather having been acting up all day, it is not too surprising that things have gotten worse in general.

I consider taking off my snowboard to climb back up the mountain on foot in order to help my brothers. But while I am still pondering that option, they finally start moving again. Compared to being on skis, on a snowboard, it is considerably more difficult to assist someone else who is not yet as steady and experienced. With skiing, you quite often see parents teaching their little kids how to ski by placing them in between their legs and guiding them downhill. That is how they get the hang out of the movements and such.

Once they get a bit closer, I see that Jordan is sort of sliding down backwards, holding both of Lily's hands to keep her upright. The process is not exactly very quick, but it sure gets the job done. Luke is following a few yards behind them. A couple of minutes later they have reached us.

"Everything all right?" I ask for what feels like the hundredth time within the last thirty minutes or so.

At that moment, another strong gust of wind hits us. I struggle to keep my balance since I was not prepared for that to happen. The same goes for Luke, who makes a couple of movements that actually would have been rather hilarious, had I been in the mood to laugh at anything right now. Jordan, however, is firm as a rock and keeps a steady hold on Lily, who shrieks loudly when the latest blast almost knocks her over again.

"This is getting ridiculous," my older brother growls.

"What happened?" I ask, although Will already told me.

"Lily got knocked over by the wind," Luke explains. "It came out of nowhere and literally mowed her down."

"Are you okay, squirt?" I ask her.

"I wanna go home," Lily whines. "I don't like this anymore."

"I know, baby. We'll be down in a few minutes, I promise," Jordan says.

"You're doing great," I add, hoping to encourage her to keep going.

"You're a liar!" she yells at me, causing me to jump because I did not expect that kind of reaction from her. "I am no good at this and...and I'm slowing you guys down! And...I'm scared."

That last part was barely audible but I heard her and my heart immediately goes out to her. This is a really shitty situation to be in, I admit that, and we definitely have to make sure that this won't put her off snowboarding for good.

"That's not true, Lily. You're really brave. Do you think you can keep up with that for another five to ten minutes? Because then we'll be down by the car park and we can go home and get ourselves a well-deserved treat? What do you say?" I try to reassure her.

"Okay."

"Perfect. What about you guys? You good to keep going?"

The uniform looks of consternation that I receive from my brothers for this question would have made lesser guys quiver in their boots.

I take that as a yes.

"That crossing with the other slope should come up in about three quarters of a mile. Let's stop there for the final time just to make sure we're all still good," Jordan suggests, pulling Lily, who has sat down in the snow again, back onto her feet.

"Sounds good," I reply before I start making my way down again.

I am going as slowly as possible, taking wide turns instead of racing downhill as I normally would do, conscious to stay in my sibling's line of sight. In my mind, I try to picture the remainder of the slope. Once we make it to the crossing Jordan mentioned, it is only about another mile until we reach the station down in the valley. This is also where we have parked our cars.

My phone vibrates in my pocket and I remember that I sent a text message to Alex and Josh, telling them that we would be meeting them by the cars in about a quarter of an hour. That was just before Jordan and I got off the chair lift.

Obviously, it has taken us way longer than I anticipated, what with us first having it out with our brothers at the top of the mountain and also due to all these unplanned stops. I would not be surprised if half an hour had passed already since I sent that information. No wonder they are starting to blow up my phone with messages and calls. Not much I can do about it now though, since I am certainly not going to stop just to reassure them that we are on our way.

Then, suddenly and almost subconsciously, my ears pick up the low, rumbling sound of thunder. While my brain tells me that a storm with thunder and lightning is completely ridiculous at this time of the year, the rumbling grows steadily louder. It almost sounds like an aeroplane or a freight train passing by.

That is when my mountain experience finally makes me realise what this actually means.

An avalanche!

I swivel around and look up the mountain, hoping against hope that I don't see what nobody ever wants to experience in real life. I cannot detect anything, which is to be expected, what with everything being so foggy and grey.

But my instinct tells me that danger is already upon us.

I frantically look around but I don't spot any of my siblings. I hope this is because of the known visibility issues, and not because they have been held up further up once again.

Then, as if someone has flipped a switch, my whole body goes into auto pilot and my training kicks in. I hurriedly get my snowboard off and run towards the side of the slope where there are is a small forest with heavy undergrowth.

Once I get there, I grab onto one of the trees like it is my lifeline. It might sound silly, since a measly tree like this won't ever hold up against a major avalanche, but it is still better than completely exposing yourself to the imminent danger and potentially huge amounts of snow that are bound to come down the mountain with enormous speed at any moment.

As I am preparing myself for the unavoidable, I blindly call out for my brothers to do the same. Although, if I had a minute to reflect, I would know that there is no chance for them to even hear me, what with the rumbling that is getting progressively louder.

I am still yelling instructions at nobody in particular when the avalanche reaches my area. Within a split second, everything around me turns completely white and I am hit with snow from what feels like every direction.

Trying to keep my arms wrapped tightly around the tree, I close my eyes and pray for mine and my siblings' lives.