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The sun glistened on the snow and Christy frowned. ‘Not a great day to climb that particular route,’ she murmured, casting her mind back to her own experiences. ‘The snow gets very soft if the sun is out.’
‘They’re fortunate that only one of them is injured,’ Alessandro growled as he swung the car into the lay-by and switched off the engine. Jake and Sean walked towards them.
‘We’ve got four hours before dark,’ Sean said, his expression grim as he stared up the path they needed to take. ‘Let’s shift.’
They walked fast and reached the top of the gully within an hour and half.
Alessandro immediately abseiled down the gully to assess the state of the injured boy, careful not to dislodge rocks as he went.
Below them, at the foot of the gully, Christy could see the deep, tumbled snow that had avalanched off the steep face.
‘They were lucky,’ she said to Jake, who was now beside her and delving into his pack for the ropes he was carrying. ‘They could have been buried under that.’
She watched as Alessandro attached the boy to his rope and saw him reach for his radio. Then he spoke to Sean, passing on details of his injuries.
‘We’re going to need to lower him to the bottom of the gully on a stretcher.’
Jake rolled his eyes and Christy grinned.
It was the most equipment-intensive rescue that they performed and immediately she started to identify safe anchor points that could be used to secure ropes.
While Alessandro gave first aid to the casualty and tried to ward off hypothermia, Christy and Jake set up the lowering belay for the stretcher and handlers.
‘This is going to be fun,’ Jake muttered, as he found another anchor point and then rigged the stretcher for a vertical lower. ‘Which mad fools are going to volunteer to act as barrow boys?’
The stretcher would be held by a static rope at both ends and helped down by two ‘barrow boys’ who were responsible for abseiling down alongside the stretcher to control the descent.
Each rope was secured to the crag by five equalised anchor points, and by the time the team had finished preparing, ropes were criss-crossing the crag.
It took another hour of intensive teamwork to lower the casualty safely to the bottom and move him out of reach of further avalanches.
While all three teenagers were protected in a bivvy tent, Alessandro did a more detailed survey of the injured boy and Sean communicated with the helicopter.
Fifteen minutes later they heard the familiar clack-clack and the helicopter came up the valley towards them. The helicopter dropped an orange smoke bomb to give an indication of wind speed and direction and everyone made sure that everything was securely anchored down.
First Alessandro was winched into the helicopter, ready to receive the patient. Then the winch man was lifted with the stretcher across his waist, a high line preventing the stretcher from spinning round in the wind. Christy watched from the ground as the stretcher drew level with the open
door and the winch operator helped ease the stretcher into the helicopter.
Then they jettisoned the high line and soared down the valley towards the hospital.
‘Which leaves us to get ourselves off this hill in darkness and freezing cold,’ Jake muttered. ‘Why does Alessandro always manage to hitch a lift?’
‘Because he’s a brilliant A and E doctor,’ Christy said as she started collecting equipment and preparing for their descent.
Jake looked at her. ‘Hero-worship?’
She gave a wry smile as she pushed a rope into her rucksack. ‘Possibly. But I think it’s love, unfortunately.’
‘Why unfortunately?’
‘I don’t know.’ Christy heaved her pack onto her back. ‘I suppose because I still don’t really know where I stand with him.’
‘Have you tried blunt conversation?’
She looked at him. ‘I suppose I’m afraid to do that,’ she said honestly. ‘Afraid I might push him into saying something I don’t want to hear.’
Like ‘I don’t really love you any more but I’m willing to make an effort because of the children’.
