Green Mountain Academy by Frances Greenslade

Author:Frances Greenslade [Greenslade, Frances]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Tundra Book Group
Published: 2022-09-27T00:00:00+00:00

chapter thirteen

As my bare toes touched icy rock, a shock wave shot through my legs, up my spine and into my forehead. Don’t do this, my body screamed. I’d stuffed the shoe, my boot and socks into my backpack. The pack itself was bulkier than I wanted it to be, and I tried hard to ignore the weight of it tugging my shoulders away from the rockface. I had tucked the flashlight into the zipper of my pack so that it cast a bit of light upward, where I was climbing. It didn’t do much good. I should have my headlamp. But I’d left it at the school. That’s what came of rushing things.

I had to do this in one try. There was no room for mistakes, no do-overs. If I took too long, my hands and feet would stiffen up in the cold and I’d lose my grip. Getting warm again in these conditions would be nearly impossible. Snow landed on my head, trickling down my collar.

Keep your body close to the rockface, I reminded myself. Hang off your arms, use your legs to push up instead of trying to pull with your arms. In my head, I ran through what Ming had taught us.

Time to climb.

My fingers found the first good handhold and I swung myself up, hips close to the wall.

“This is doable,” I said out loud.

The next move was a little trickier. There was only one foothold and my left leg had to swing behind my right so I could keep my balance. I also had to push off with my right hand while finding the handhold for the left.

I pictured myself doing it and then I did it. I gave myself an inner fist bump and readied myself for the next move. Already my fingers and toes were stiffening. I pushed the pain to the back of my mind and thrust myself up. For one sketchy moment I felt myself teeter as my backpack shifted and knocked me off balance. But I pressed my cheek and chest against the rockface and held on till I steadied and my heartbeat calmed.

Don’t rest too long, I remembered. A blast of snow slammed me full in my face and I gasped and shook it from my hair and shoulders. I was at what’s called “the crux” of my climb—the hardest part on the wall—the part I’d failed at so many times before.

I mean, the part I’d tried enough times to finally figure out.

My feet felt like blocks of ice. Actually, they barely felt like anything anymore. My fingers were worse. I flexed them, then shook out each hand in turn.

Time to move. Diamond was counting on me.

With a mighty push, my right foot found the toehold. My palms clung to the cold rock like a lizard. My fingertips moved right, left, up, down, and finally found the tiniest of swells to clamp down on. My right leg muscle burned as I powered into it and brought the left leg up to meet it.

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