Descending Star

DISCLOSURES

For two days, Zoey worked on the Boulder Problem, with her harness attached to a fixed line dropped from High Camp. She repeatedly walked herself down to the base of the pitch on an etrier and then climbed back up, in seemingly endless repetition, in a struggle to memorize every ripple in the smooth granite. If she fell backward off the rock and caught herself on the short rope attached to her harness, she counted the save as a death. On the morning of Day One, she died eleven times.

That afternoon, over fifty-three attempts, she died only four times.

That night, she lay in her hammock, gazed up at the stars, and confessed to nearby Drake that she had doubts. Too little time remained.

"To rehearse Enduro Corner?" he guessed. He referred to a horizontal roof in the granite, high above them, eighteen feet deep along the crack. At its crux, she would need to hang from just three fingers, in order to reach up for the next hold. "We'll go straight up after this and set a Portaledge beneath it," he suggested.

She said to the stars, "No need. I feel good about the Corner. I rehearsed it all winter, back home, at the Stone Table."

"The what?"

"Doesn't matter. The problem is these smooth faces. I'm too small. Insufficient friction force. I don't stick."

Drake said, "You're also less top-heavy and less likely to topple backward. It compensates."

"Every boyfriend I've ever had has lamented my flat chest."

"That's not what I"–

"Chill, Drake. Pulling your chain."

"Look, I can't tell you how to put the Boulder behind you. I doubt anyone can. What you're doing is incredible."

"You know, I owe all you guys a big thank you, for not constantly telling me no one will think less of me if I bail."

Lani, hunkered beside Drake, said, "We're all saying it behind your back."

Everyone laughed. Then silence ensued.

Then Lani said, "Just don't bail tonight. You're better off up here. The Boulder is the lesser of your problems."

Zoey chuckled and breathed, "Yeah. Chief Jacob. I don't know what to do about him."

"That guy has latched on, Zoey. To cut him free, you'll need a machete. How old is he, anyway? He's a monster, but he acts thirteen."

"He's a little older than that. I know, I know. Don't tell me I'm robbing the cradle. I honestly don't know what I want from him. I met him through another guy, a friend who goes all the way back to childhood. A best friend. So he's sort of become totemic in a way."

The woman pondered that and surmised, "So, this Jacob is a tether?"

Zoey shrugged. "No opinion. Until I see dawn on my birthday, he is nothing. If I see the first sunrise of my eighteenth year, then I suppose I'll find out."

"If you truly are in doubt about that," Drake said, "you should bail."

Zoey nodded at the stars. "I just might. Guys, I love being alive. I'm not suicidal. On the big night, when I address the Wall, I'll decide."

On Day Two, she worked the Boulder Problem from dawn to dusk and didn't die once. They briefly discussed the overhanging ceiling up on Enduro Corner, and Zoey decided that she did not fear it and had bigger puzzles to solve below, on the traverse. They rapidly broke down High Camp, sent down what they could on the winch, and rappelled with the rest on their backs. Zoey went down last, self-belayed, and retrieved the last rope, down to the High Traverse, where the others prepared the stage for the remainder of the protected rehearsals.