Off the Ice
With a sharp, shuddering jerk, the snowcat lurched forward, its wide rubber tracks biting into the deep snow drifts as it turned away from the airstrip and headed straight into the dense, shadowed labyrinth of the pine forest.
The journey was a slow, grueling ascent up the winding mountain pass. As they climbed higher, leaving the flat expanse of the valley floor behind, the trees grew sparser, replaced by jagged granite outcroppings and towering cliffs of dark stone blanketed in heavy, untouched drifts of white. The world outside the frosted windows of the cabin narrowed until it consisted entirely of white and shadow, the headlights cutting a pale, luminous tunnel through the falling twili