‘Up here?’ Eddie said sceptically. ‘There isn’t even grass this high up.’
‘There have been warmer periods in the past - there used to be vegetation in the Antarctic, remember. Maybe the priests at Kedarnath in Talonor’s time grew things up here. Or maybe there were people who lived closer to the Vault of Shiva - they’d need to get their food from somewhere.’
He shook his head. ‘Could just be a fluke of layers of rock or something.’
‘Yeah, I know. And if it were used for cultivation, it would have been a long time ago - there’s a lot of erosion. It’s still an interesting possibility, though.’
‘Depends on your idea of interesting.’
‘Quiet, you.’
Once Nina’s headache faded, they set off again. The ridge loomed over them, a colossal wall of stone. From this distance, the ‘notch’ was revealed as a deep pass in its own right. Eddie checked it with binoculars. ‘There’s a way up to it. Pretty steep, and there’ll be a lot of zigzagging, but I think we can do it without having to rope up.’
‘Can we reach it before it starts snowing?’ Kit asked.
He looked at the sky. The clouds had thickened still further. ‘Probably not. It might not be too bad, though. Not much wind at the moment.’
‘Let’s hope it stays that way,’ said Nina.
They picked their way up the steepening route to the pass. About half a mile short, they stopped to eat. It was now past midday; only five hours before sunset. Rested and nourished, the trio pressed on until they reached the bottom of the path.
The sun was lost behind cloud, the temperature falling. Nina realised the clouds themselves were closing in. Kedarnath’s peaks were already obscured, and the upper parts of the ridge disappeared into the leaden grey. As she watched, a lone snowflake drifted past. It seemed to be a fluke . . . then another appeared. And another.
‘Shit,’ muttered Eddie as the fall began in earnest. He tried to pick out the switchback path above him. ‘We’ve got about another three hundred feet to climb, and there’s nowhere to put up a shelter if it gets bad. We’ll either have to go back down and wait it out, or get to the top no matter what the weather does.’
‘Can we make it all the way up?’ asked Nina.
‘Dunno.’ He studied the clouds. ‘If the wind doesn’t pick up we should be able to, but . . .’ A shrug. ‘Depends how keen you are to see what’s up there.’
‘There is kind of a time factor,’ Nina reminded him. ‘If the Khoils figure out the Kedarnath connection, they’ll be on their way here too - and probably by helicopter.’
‘Bad weather’ll affect a chopper just as much as us. If we can’t get up there, neither can they.’
‘But as soon as it clears, they’ll be able to fly straight there.’ She looked at the winding path above. ‘If you think it’s too great a risk, then . . . we’ll wait it out until the weather improves,’ she said reluctantly. ‘But if you think we can make it, we should try. For all we know, the Vault of Shiva might be right on the other side of that ridge. It might be in that ridge.’
‘Great, dump all the life-and-death decisions on your husband . . .’ Eddie stared up at the pass once more. ‘Okay, we’ll try it. You all right with that, Kit?’
‘If you think we can make it, I will trust you.’ He smiled. ‘You seem to know what you’re doing.’
‘Christ, I wish that was true all the time! Okay, let’s go. Be careful.’
Eddie took the lead, probing the rock beneath the snow with his aluminium pole. Fat snowflakes whirled around them, eddies of wind gusting them up the ridge into the climbers’ faces.
The path narrowed as they moved higher, the steep slope transitioning to actual cliff. Mid-afternoon, but beneath the overhanging clouds it felt more like evening. The landscape below disappeared into a dismal sea of grey as more snow fell. The pass above was only vaguely visible through a disorienting swirl of snowflakes.
They continued the ascent. Before long the climbing poles became useless, everyone needing both hands to keep a firm grip on the rock. At the end of another leg of the zigzag path, Eddie stopped and squinted up through the falling snow. ‘Not far to go, but if it gets any narrower we might have to get out some spikes and rope up. It’ll slow us down, but it’ll be safer.’ He shifted his gaze to the main mass of Kedarnath - and his expression changed. ‘Wait, fuck that! We need to get to the top, right now!’
Nina looked. ‘Why? What’s happening?’ A dark cloud bank had moved across the peak, angling upwards from the mountain’s side like a Nazi salute.
‘A storm’s coming! That cloud - it’s called a flag cloud, and when it’s tilted up like that it means the wind’s blowing really fast.’
‘How fast is really fast?’ Kit asked nervously.
‘Seventy, eighty miles an hour - it’s a fucking blizzard, and it’s coming right at us! Move it!’ He started up the path.
‘I’m movin’, I’m movin’!’ cried Nina, side-stepping along the narrow ledge as fast as she dared. Kit was right behind her. The wind picked up, its shrill whistle chilling in more ways than one.
The approaching storm seemed as tangible as the rockface, a black wall closing in to crush them. Eddie reached the last leg of the path, the entrance to the pass at its top. He stretched his legs wide to clear a broad gap in the ledge - and felt stones shift underfoot, adrenalin kicking at his heart as he fought to keep his balance. He rasped his boot against the rock until it found solidity, then hopped over, warning the others to be careful.
Nina reached the final section, seeing the pass - and also the storm lunging down like an attacking bear. Panting, the freezing air searing her lungs, she moved to the gap. The wind was roaring now, tearing at her clothes. Kit clung to the rock wall a few steps behind her.
Eddie waited on the far side, hand out. She steeled herself, jumped - and cleared it. ‘Kit, come on!’ she called.
He leapt—
The storm hit.
It was almost a physical blow, the wind slamming against them. Visibility was reduced to inches in a second. Eddie clutched Nina’s hand; she reached back with her other to grab Kit’s sleeve, pulling as hard as she could as he clawed for a handhold. The weight of his backpack made him wobble, one foot slipping - then he found support. She tried to yell for him to follow, but couldn’t even hear her own voice over the fury of the storm. All she could do was tug the Indian in the same direction Eddie was pulling her, and hope none of them fell and dragged the others over the edge . . .
Perversely, the last few feet were the hardest, the steep, snow-slicked slope offering no handholds. Eddie kicked his toes hard into the frozen scree, dragging Nina after him. His outstretched hand, already numbing, touched something solid.
The wall of the pass. They had made it—
And were no better off. The split in the ridge was barely eight feet wide at its foot - and it acted as a channel for the storm. The vicious wind chill made the temperature plummet. Within moments, the group’s backs were coated in snow and ice, their clothing flapping like flags in a hurricane.
‘Keep moving!’ Eddie gasped. If they stayed in the natural wind tunnel, they would freeze to death in minutes - there was no chance of erecting a tent in time, even if it could withstand the storm. One arm over his face, he reached back with the other to pull Nina along. Kit held on to her backpack, stumbling in their wake.
Now Eddie understood why this part of the mountain had such a fearsome reputation. The pass was an obvious short cut - but if the weather changed suddenly, it could become a deathtrap.