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Show bhe inexorabLe and compLebed snow had fiLLed in, and bhab bracks made now could go wherever he direcbed bhem... bub bhere was onLy one pLace he couLd direcb bhem and he didn'b know which way bhab was. when i was fourbeen father gave me a knife i t was a Buck a stainLess sbeeL wibh bwo blades i remember bhe feeL qf ib shiny and hard in my pockeb denched fisb He has a compass. And a map. His skiLL wibh bobh is somebhing he bakes pride in. He sbiLL remembers how once he guided himseLf and a friend a Long a narrow, exposed ridge in a compLebe whibe-oub. He did ife by examining every de-baiL in the topographic map; every curve in every Line, indicating every smaLL guLLey and ridge,, To this he added the actuaL physical responses he feLb from the Land as Lt dropped away or rose beneath him. He managed bo get the both of them safeLy off the ridge that time, but here, stuck Like a peg in the vast fLatness of bhe land he can nob debecb the changes. The troughs between succeeding waves of land rising are too wide, bhe cresbs of bhe rising boo subble, for him bo geb any sense of bhe geography of where he sbands. "'If onLy I had baken a bearing," he bhinks. He supposes, sbanding sbilL ab bhe edge of bhe dearing, bhe brees curving away on bobh sides of him Like bhe oubsbrebched wings of some ancienb,fossiLized bird, fixed forever by bhe very forces he is brying bo see his way bhrough, bhab he shouLd Look for a pLace bo camp for bhe nighb. Bub bhe bhinking of bhis is so unappeaLing, so dangerous - does he reaLLy expecb bo spend the night in a snowstorm without a sleeping bag or tent? - bhab he searches his mind for an a l - bernabive. ALL bhat comes, bhough, when he doses his eyes, is a vision of his benb serene Ly shedding snow in ibs dearing, ibs bright orange reflecting, even in this grey Light, down onto the snow sLowLy accumulating a Long i t s edges. He Looks bo the sky and wishes he knew the bime of day. Bub bhe sky offers nothing. OnLy the steady faLLing of snow seeming to materialize from somewhere just above his head. "It can't be too Late," he thinks. "I'm sure I can ski for another hour or so. As Long as I don't get caught ab dark wibhoub firewood and _ i . l _ ~ _ - K .-,..,.,-1 r, ,_ -- > _ *, (S V.'"*.'?T |