Free Heart of Ice by Carolyn Keene Page B

Nancy’s wake-up call came at six o’clock the next morning, it was still dark outside. She had to be at Alpine Adventures at seven-thirty and still had last-minute packing to do. After taking a shower, she rolled her sleeping bag up and stuffed it into the bottom of the backpack that Alpine Adventures had supplied. Then she laid out all the clothing she’d need.
    By the time Nancy had squeezed everything into her pack, strapped her thermal sleeping pad to the outside, and dressed, it was time to meet Ned for the drive over to Alpine Adventures.
    â€œBring your packs over here,” Logan called as Nancy and Ned pulled them out of the trunk of their car.
    â€œI don’t know how we’re going to carry these packs up a fourteen-thousand-foot mountain,” Ned murmured as they made their way to the van.
    â€œWe only have to carry them to base camp,” Nancy offered as reassurance.
    â€œThat’s a two-day hike,” Ned countered anxiously. “And even it’s at ten thousand feet.”
    Nancy smiled confidently. “I know you can handle it,” she said.
    Nancy and Ned next went into the office to put on their boots and crampons so that Kara could check their fit.
    With everything loaded, the group piled into the van and set off for the park. Kara had brought along warm muffins, fruit, tea, and coffee, and everyone ate as the van made its way along country highways, with Mt. Rainier beckoning in the distance.
    Nancy squeezed Ned’s hand as she gazed at the tall evergreens, their branches laden with white, powdery snow. The early-morning sky was clear and brilliant.
    After a two-and-a-half-hour drive they climbed out of the van, and everyone gasped at Rainier. Almost completely covered in snow, it dwarfed the other mountains. They were at fifty-five hundred feet, and the remaining nine thousand feet—straight up—looked impossible to climb.
    Hefting their packs and strapping snowshoes onto their boots, the group hiked over several flat, open spaces before beginning the ascent to Panorama Point.
    As they hiked along, the conversation turnedfrom the weather to climbing experiences and gruesome climbing accidents. Hundreds of people had died on the mountain, many of them on the lower slopes and lesser peaks.
    â€œHikers don’t realize that there’s danger at lower altitudes, too,” Kara explained. “They think they’re on safe, gentle territory, so they don’t pay attention to what they’re doing or where they’re hiking, which is when accidents happen.”
    Nancy felt a sense of foreboding as she lifted her snowshoes, keeping in rhythm with the other hikers. The mountain was unquestionably a dangerous one, with its glaciers, snow bridges, and crevasses, and it was even more dangerous with a possible criminal on the trip.
    Sometime in midafternoon, the group arrived at their first camp near Panorama Point.
    â€œThis is it,” Alex declared, gesturing widely with his arms.
    Nancy wondered exactly what he meant. The area was generally flat, with a sloping hill on one side that provided some shelter from the wind. A clump of fir trees stood off to the right, and there were a few rocky ledges about fifty yards away. They were in the middle of nowhere.
    â€œWe’re going to build snow caves,” Kara explained when she saw the confusion on Nancy’s face. “They’re the warmest shelter out here.”
    Nancy nodded and took her pack off, setting it on the snow near everyone else’s. She marveled at the weightlessness she felt as she walked over to the group that had gathered near the hill.
    â€œOkay,” Logan began as he unstrapped a small collapsible shovel from his backpack. “Alex and I are each going to start a cave by digging two holes into the side of this hill.” While Nancy and the rest of the group watched, the two men dug narrow tubelike holes into the side of the hill, about twenty-five feet