Avalanche (Jack Drummond Series Book 1) by Jack Drummond

Author:Jack Drummond [Drummond, Jack]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Mobuk Press
Published: 2024-01-09T00:00:00+00:00

‘You don’t look happy,’ said Benoît, as he lifted off the airstrip apron and headed east over the Route des Passeurs. Beside him Garamonde adjusted his headset.

‘I’m not,’ he replied. ‘In two days, we’re going to have up to ten thousand people descending on Les Hauts for the Diable. And the only thing standing between them and millions of tonnes of snowpack is a few trees, some wire netting, and a control system that’s not doing its job properly.’

‘Les maux?’

‘Well, they certainly haven’t helped,’ replied Garamonde. ‘I called Fredo over in Dareggio and he told me they had a slip this morning on the Sella gully. A big slab.’

‘Anyone caught?’

Garamonde shook his head. ‘It’s an off-piste route, but the lifts hadn’t opened. Came down to within two kilometres of the road to Santalola.’

‘And SyPAC?’ asked Benoît, bringing the Bell on to a northerly heading, the summit flanks of Viallé coming up ahead on the right.

‘Either it’s misreading the weights, or it’s getting the charges wrong. Marc had to blow three of the sites a couple of times this morning, and we still don’t know if it’s done the job.’

‘Which is why you called me?’

‘With the Diable so close, we haven’t got the time for a surface check. I need to know what’s going on up here,’ he continued, leaning an arm round the back of Benoît’s seat and peering down at the slope. ‘Don’t worry, I’ll sign you a note for the gas.’

‘That’ll please the mayor.’

‘Not half as much as me paying a call on him.’

79

Philippe Bézard waited for his father at the bottom of the Valentina couloir. They had started off side by side on the top ledge of the Diable but Philippe was already far enough ahead to stop, catch his breath and still not see Patric. Up until the end of the first traverse they’d been together, but at the entrance to the lead gully his father misjudged his approach and swerved to a crouching halt to avoid contact with an outcrop of grey rock on one side and thin air on the other.

And this was meant to be an easy ski, thought Philippe – getting to know the route again, familiarising himself with the course like a racehorse sniffing the first fence. Instead, father and son had started to compete.

The Diable was like that.

Pulling off a glove, Philippe pushed his fingers through a mop of thick blond curls, and looked back up the couloir. Over a whisper of icy breeze, he made out the first sh-sh-sh-shearing of skis turning on early morning scabs of ice, and a second or two later his father swept into view, pulling up beside him in a spray of glittering snow crystals.

‘You were going too fast at the end of the traverse,’ was the first thing Patric said, pulling off his goggles, eyes squinting in the snow-glare.

‘It was you who went too fast. Otherwise…’

‘I was watching out for you.’

‘From in front of me?’

Patric frowned, then his face broke into a wide grin.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.