Frank stabbed his ice axe into the steep snow-laden slope and stopped to gaze at the swirling gray clouds clinging to the Western Cwm far below. He looked up at the jagged ridge of the mountain cutting into a slate-blue sky and switched his carabineer over onto the fixed line running up the face of the mountain. The yellow rope doubled and tripled before him as it writhed in the wind. That he barely felt the bitter cold biting his body was a harbinger of things to come.
Frank stabbed his ice axe into the steep snow-laden slope and stopped to gaze at the swirling gray clouds clinging to the Western Cwm far below. He looked up at the jagged ridge of the mountain cutting into a slate-blue sky and switched his carabineer over onto the fixed line running up the face of the mountain. The yellow
