The Third Man

Chapter 2 - The Ascent

Four months ago...

It was Peter's third expedition to Mt. Rainier in eight months. He was visiting the peak as an environmental scientist at observational capacity to research the effect of climate change on glaciers. Accompanying him were three other people including a Meteorological expert, a climate change expert and a local guide.

Mt. Rainier, the highest mountain of the Cascade Range of the Pacific Northwest with a summit elevation of 14,411 ft (4,392 m), and the highest mountain in the U.S. state of Washington was considered one of the most dangerous volcanoes in the world, and was on the Decade Volcano list. Because of its large amount of glacial ice, Mt. Rainier could produce massive lahars that could threaten the entire Puyallup River valley, and poses a grave threat to the southern sections of the Seattle metropolitan area, a city of over 650,000 people with more than 3.7 million living in its metropolitan area.

Peter being one of the best local environmental experts available was asked by the local authority to assess the glacial activity of Mt. Rainier in different seasons. Peter never liked it there. But he couldn't refuse the money he got, since he wasn't making any, after the events of his troubled past, including his wife leaving him and getting suspended from his teaching job in Seattle University for being an alcoholic.

It was decided that they would scale up the mountain up to three thousand meters and call it a day. The next day Peter would stay behind at the 'safe zone' to carry out his assessment and the other three would go ahead for their respective research and return back by dawn. They would then camp there for the night and make way for base camp the next day.

The weather for next two days was forecasted to be pleasant with gentle breeze blowing throughout the day. Scaling the peak for the third time made Peter confident about the success of the expedition, and so was the case of their climb. The group reached their destination quite easily with minimal hurdles and set up their camp for the night.

At night the temperature had fallen to thirteen degrees on the negative side, but the group had made their arrangements to cope up with it. The local guide, being extra careful had asked each individual to pack some extra food, medical kit and ropes, apart from their climbing kit.

The group bonded over bonfire and had a hearty meal before calling it a day.

Next day, at wee hours of the morning, three members of the team started their ascent, leaving Peter behind, who caught up his own trail of work. He had brought his various data acquisition equipment, to gather the relevant data. He had to place each equipment at various locations. Each equipment had an inbuilt GPS device for ease of tracking.

The wind was higher than what he had expected, but nothing Peter couldn't manage. After about forty minutes of hiking, Peter found a place he decided was perfect to place the equipment. His hike was getting difficult by the minute. The wind had picked up substantially since he left his camp. The visibility had come to near zero. Peter decided to let the wind calm down before he could proceed any further.

But what Peter didn't realise was, he had left his limits of 'safe zone' way behind.

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