The Drop (2 page)

“There he is,” Bryce said. Sam looked like a child, waving at us from the bottom of four fairly big drops. Our two-way radios crackled.

“All right, guys,” Sam's voice came through, muffled and tossed around by the wind. “Time for your first test. Over.”

Dave grabbed his radio and raised it to his face. “How did you get down there? Over.”

“I rode my board, David. Now it's time to see what you four have in you. And since you just volunteered, David, you can go first. Over.”

“Where? Over.”

“Down here. Four easy drops,” Sam said. “The first two are about ten feet, maybe twelve. The third is only five or six and the final one…Well, you'll see. Over.” Sam insisted we finish all our communications with “Over.”

Dave turned to us. He wore these giant goggles and his hat down low, but his lips quivered, and he mashed a gloved hand on the back of his head whenever he was nervous. Which was often. “Bryce should go first,” Dave said. “He's already at the edge.” There was nothing from the radio. “Sam?” No response. “Sam?” Dave looked more worried.

“Are we missing something here, David? Over.” Sam sounded irritated.

Dave shook his head. “Bryce should go first. He's on the edge already. Over.”

“Fine. Bryce, would you like to go first? Over,” Sam said. Bryce jumped off the ledge he was perched on and shot down the side of the mountain without a word. “I'll take that as a yes. Over.”

It was an impressive run. First he cut around an outcropping, and then he spun into an open space and aimed himself toward the drops. Everything he did was compact and tight. There didn't seem to be a single wasted movement.

“Your turn, David. Over,” Sam said. Dave nodded a couple of times. He put the radio in his pocket and then pulled it out again.

“Any hints, Bryce? Over,” he said. His hand was shaking.

“Just hit them straight. Maybe pull back a little before the third one or you'll have too much speed for the last one,” Bryce said. The radio crackled off, then back on again. “Oh. Over.” Dave put the radio back in his pocket and made a big production of zipping it up.

“Just go, Dave,” Hope said.

“I'm going. I'm going.”

“Then g
oooooooo
.”

Dave patted himself down one last time. Then he jumped over the side of the ledge.

His run was awkward. He slowed almost to a stop just before each drop and then kind of fell over the side. He always landed on his board, although after the second drop, he had to jump a couple of times to get going again.

It wasn't pretty. But he got to the end of it and settled in beside Sam and Bryce.

“All right, Alex. Your turn. Over,” Sam said. I didn't even bother to respond. I just jumped, twisted my board in the air and pushed hard toward the first drop.

chapter two

I tried to follow Bryce's line down the slope. But by the time I got to the first drop, I was going way too fast. I stuttered, dug deep with my heel edge, then twisted back, head-on to the drop and sailed off. “Bend your knees,” I told myself as I landed. Powder flew everywhere. I cut a little farther than Bryce's line and straightened out for the second drop. It came faster than I had expected, but I managed to get squared to it and keep the front tip of my board up as I dropped off. I went toe edge, leaning forward, and did a nice slow arc. Flipped to my heel edge, leaning way back as the board dug into the powder, and aimed at the third drop. It was easy enough. Not even really a drop, but more of a steep incline.

Then came the fourth drop.

It didn't look like anything until I noticed the lip on it. It was like a launch pad. I tried to crouch when I hit it to lessen the amount of air I got, but it was impossible. I sailed off, and my board got kind of wobbly beneath me. I reached down, grabbed the back side of my board, right between my heels. Just before I landed, I gave it a little twist. Flair, you know. Style.

I did a couple of quick turns in the deep powder. Then I carved up and around to where the others stood.

“Nice,” Sam said. “But tricks are not appreciated out here. Remember?”

“It wasn't really a trick,” I said. “I had to stabilize my board and…” Sam waved a hand at me, all the while looking up the mountain. His blond curls flipped out beneath his tuque. His eyes were hidden behind a pair of sunglasses, but I knew they were an icy blue. I couldn't think of a time I'd ever seen him wear goggles. He tilted the glasses down a little and looked at me.

“It's all right out here today. But think about this when you're on Backcountry Patrol. You do a trick, jam yourself up, and you're done. So is whoever you were sent out to save. Cool?”

“Cool,” I replied. I turned away from the rest of them as a giddy grin crossed my face. Sam had said
when
you're on Backcountry Patrol. Not
if,
but
when
.

We all looked uphill to where Hope stood. She was all pink. A maddening pink. A bright, glowing pink blob of cotton candy caught on the side of the mountain. Even her board, an evo 5150, and bindings were pink. I mean, you can like a color and all, but seriously. Mix it up a little.

Sam pulled out his two-way and spoke into it.

“All right, girl, your go. Show us your stuff. Over.” There was no response. “Hope? Over.” Again, no response. He turned to me. “Did she have her radio on?” I shrugged. “Hope can you hear me? Over.” “Yeah,” came her little voice.

“Yeah what? Over.”

“Yeah. Over.”

“Better. It's your go. Over.” Sam let his arm drop by his side. He was moving his gloved thumb up and down the radio.

“She's scared,” Dave said. Bryce picked up his radio and held it to his face.

“Hope, you there? Over.”

“Yeah. Over.”

“It's nothing. Three little drops. The fourth one has a lip on it, so bend your knees when you hit it. That way you'll absorb it and not get launched. No problem. Over.” There was no response.

“Oh man, we're going to be out here all day waiting for her to go,” Dave said. The sun was getting higher and warming the air. It was almost noon, and the clouds that had been pushing in on us seemed to be heading south. It was still cold, but nice to feel the sunshine.

The pom-pom on Hope's tuque suddenly jumped into the air. A moment later she was cutting a large half circle toward the first drop. It looked good. She was following the line Dave had taken. Just before the first drop, she kicked out twice on her toe side and drifted slowly toward the edge. She dropped over much like I had, though she didn't bend her knees. The impact actually caused her to pick up more speed, and suddenly she was shooting toward the second drop. She came off it straight, landed flat, wobbled and got up on her toe side again. It looked like she was going to wipe out off the third drop. Somehow she managed to get herself straight enough to float over. Then she aimed herself at the final drop. She was heading straight at it, bent down, in perfect position to launch. But instead of holding this pose, she suddenly slid sideways, and hit the lip at a bit of an angle. She got huge air, floating up and out farther than any of the rest of us had. The only problem was that she was sideways to the hill. Land like that, and it isn't just doing a face-plant you have to worry about. I cringed, not really wanting to see what was going to happen next.

Just as Hope was about to hit the ground, she suddenly yanked herself around and landed backward to the slope. Now riding backward down the hill, she had to push hard on her tip to swing the board up and around. She did this with more grace than I thought she possessed, then swept in toward us, spraying everyone with snow before falling into a heap.

“What was
that
?” Dave said.

“I got twisted,” she said.

“That was pretty cool,” Bryce said. Hope smiled and reached an arm out. Bryce leaned forward and pulled her to her feet. Sam looked at her for a moment, then turned his attention to the top of the mountain. He pushed his sunglasses back up his nose.

“When you get into these things, you just have to do it. You know what I mean?” Sam said. He seemed to be talking more to the mountain than us. “Sure, you have to be cautious if you're the first one in. But I was already down here. I let you know what it was going to be like. You all have the skills to pull off something like this. You
know
you have the skills. You wouldn't
be
here if you didn't have the skills. So believe in yourselves and just go.”

I looked up at the sky to where Sam's attention seemed to be stuck. Two minutes before, it had been a beautiful day. Now, the dark clouds that had been heading south were rolling back over us. We were so high up and they were so low, it seemed like we could touch them.

Sam smiled, nodding his head. “We're standing on the top of the world here. It doesn't get much better than this.” He slapped his hands together and looked at us. “All right. There were supposed to be two more tests to do here, but I don't like the look of those clouds. The last thing we want is to be stuck out here in a storm. So let's only do one of the tests and then get into the cabin in case bad weather hits.”

“What are we going to do?” Dave asked. He looked scared already.

“See the trees down there?” Sam pointed to a little forest beneath us. It was strange to see growth so high up. But I guess it was flat enough that things just grew. “There's an object in there you have to find. First one to do so gets a prize.”

“What kind of object?” Dave asked.

“What kind of prize?” Bryce said.

Sam shook his head. “That would just be giving it all away, wouldn't it?” He straightened himself to the hill. “Stay to the right of me, all right?”

“Sure,” I said. “Why?”

He pointed to the left. “Dead Man's Drop. Ever heard of it?” We all shook our heads. “It's some kind of geological freak show over there. There are spots where the drop to the other side is no more than three or four feet. But in other places there's a slit in the mountain that goes all the way to the bottom.”

“What do you mean, all the way to the bottom?” Bryce asked.

“The bottom of the mountain. Hundreds of feet straight down.”

“Whatever,” Hope said. “That's not even, like, possible.”

“All right,” Sam replied, “don't believe me. But stay in the bush anyway, okay?”

“How come no one knows where it's four feet and where it's five hundred feet?” Hope asked.

“Because the snow swirls around there all the time. Wind or no wind, it's like waves breaking on the shore. I know a spot or two where it might not be that big a drop, but then, you can't be certain.” Hope must have looked at him as though she thought he was full of it. “No, that's all right. No one believes me. Cool, cool. But still, stay to the right.” He jumped a couple of times and started shooting down the hill. “Remember”—his voice floated back—“first one to find the mystery object gets a prize!” The four of us looked at one another and then, all at once, jumped and tucked down the incline toward the forest.

chapter three

By the time we got to the lightly forested area, the clouds had closed in above us and a vicious wind had picked up. Bryce was the first into the woods, cutting far to the right and shooting between a couple of saplings. Hope followed closely behind. Dave went for the middle, which was likely the smart choice. I steered over to where Sam was leaning against a tree. Then I cut back toward the middle. I figured there must be a reason for him to be standing where he was. Maybe it was even a clue as to where the object was.

Boarding through trees is about the worst thing you can do. I mean, short of dropping off a two-hundred-foot cliff or something stupid like that. Snowboarders need a little more space to turn than skiers do. As for stopping, well, that's another story altogether. You can't just snowplow your way to a stop in trees. Once stopped, however, you can very easily hop from one spot to another or pull yourself up with branches. But most of all, since you aren't holding on to poles, your hands are completely free. You see a lot of Ski Patrollers without poles. But they tend to be holding on to something—a sled or a first-aid kit— and they look really awkward. Boarders never look awkward.

At least I don't think so.

After about two minutes, I discovered that I had taken a difficult line. It was tight in there, and the trees were all bunched together. There was the odd old-growth oak or spruce, but generally it was little saplings that whipped my face or snagged under the board and shot me sideways. I caught an edge as I was about to pivot around a very large tree. I stumbled, righted myself and dug in hard on the back edge of my board, trying to turn. I wasn't really thinking about anything more than
not
hitting that tree.

The tree near Dead Man's Drop.

I busted out of the woods and found myself on a thin stretch of open space. The powder was deep, and after coming out of the fairly low snow of the forested area, it felt like I'd been shot straight into the middle of a huge bowl of ice cream. I leaned back, as you have to in deep powder, and tried to do a bounce turn. I wanted to stop, but I knew if I did, it would be really,
really
hard to get going again.