The Best of Wanderlust (A GeoEx eBook)

The Best of Wanderlust

IN ANTARCTIC LIGHT Sivani Babu

S urrounded by a curtain of ice and snow, I held tight to the rope in my hands. My teeth chattered as the cold bit into the little flesh I’d left exposed. As I struggled to gain purchase, I tried not to look toward the gaping maw of the mountain, a crevasse I knew was nearby but could no longer see. Instead, I searched for my fellow expeditioners in the scattering light, but there was nothing—no one. In every direction, there was only blinding whiteness. My feet were slipping, and panic was taking hold. I felt a tug at the rope, and exhaled. A second tug urged me on. I pulled back as if to say, “I’m on my way.” One step. I dug my toes into the snow. Another step. I just need to take it slow, I told myself. Another. Almost there. Then a thunderous groan reverberated down the mountain— an avalanche. Ding dong! The doorbell rang, and the Transantarctic Range sank back into the beige-carpeted staircase from which it had risen. In my childhood home, the California sunshine streamed in and drove away the Antarctic snow, and the rope that had been a lifeline on a distant mountaintop just a moment before

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