Calvin was enjoying his day. He and his father had driven up into the mountains to go backcountry skiing. There were very few people around, so it should be a solitary retreat from society.
The day started off perfectly, though he was a little slow putting his skis on. It was a little chilly, causing Calvin to cover up most exposed skin. He tucked his glasses under his ski goggles, the ones his grandma had bought him specifically to fit over his glasses. They started up, making good time up the mountain, without seeing anyone else. As they went up they tried to find the best routes down the mountain, scouting out several small powder glades with few saplings. They both knew that they would probably miss these areas and be lost till they got back to the road, so this scouting was mainly a distraction from the climb. His dad was constantly making commentary about their surroundings, so even though it was hard, tedious work, he wasn't put in a bad mood
Once they got up to the top, they stopped for snacks. The view was fabulous. The land stretched out below them, sloping down then jutting back up into snow-covered peaks. The mountains around them were carpeted with coniferous forests, stretching out beyond the horizon. Calvin had seen this same view hundreds, maybe thousands, of times, yet every time it managed to amaze him.
“It really is beautiful.” Calvin said, sipping hot cocoa.
“You say the same thing every time we come up here, and I always respond: Of course it is, you think I’d take you somewhere unworthy of my greatness?” His father responded, peeling an orange that had been slightly squashed from their journey.
“Oh yes your highness, you truly are the spitting image of all the greatest emperors and kings in history.” Calvin said, gesturing at the beaten up orange.
“Hey, I bet that many kings and emperors couldn’t get oranges, even in this shape.”
They continued on like this for several minutes, as they prepped their skis for the descent. Just before they started down, small snowflakes began falling from the sky.
“How nice, we get a beautiful snowfall to accompany our descent.” Calvin's dad commented. They skied down, grinning as they smoothly slid through the powder, slowly gaining speed. When they started they were in an open glade, and as they descended the trees slowly started closing. Calvin made some nice turns through the trees, then a sapling got caught in his bindings and flipped him. His father skied up chuckling, and pulled him up out of the powder. They continued down reaching several of the glades they had seen.
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Unnoticed by them, the snow was falling harder and harder. When they finally noted it, the snowflakes were the size of ping pong balls and it was basically a white out. They started moving more cautiously as they couldn’t see three feet in front of them.
After five more inches it was snowing at record levels, they had to jump to stay on top of the snow and not be buried. They began to panic, skiing faster to try and avoid being buried. Suddenly, they heard a rumbling. Calvin yelped and rushed ahead, zooming through the trees carelessly, and barely making it past several. The snow was now up past the lower branches of most trees. Calvin slowed as he heard his father yelling at him. Then his father's calls stopped.
The rumbling sound was now a roar. Calvin panicked again and skied straight down the mountain, miraculously missing any trees. He zoomed through a glade, when suddenly in the middle he fell through the ground. He slid down an icy tunnel, slamming into small ledges and getting bruises all over. Suddenly his skii caught on a ledge and twisted. His foot was pulled out of the ski bindings, but not before his ankle snapped. He screamed, pain shot up into his leg as his leg slammed into another ledge. He struggled to take off his other ski, constantly being slammed around. He got it off, but now he had a skii coming down with him. It slammed into his fingers with a crack. He screamed again, now in incomprehensible pain for a 13 year old. Tears streamed from his eyes, freezing before they even left his face.
He finally slid out into a flatter zone. It took him almost half an hour to even think again, his ankle threatening to knock him unconscious. When he finally started to take stock of his surroundings he realized how cold it was. As a test he spit a little bit. It froze along with most of the fluid in his mouth. His eyes were slightly protected from this with his goggles, but his nose was frozen. He didn’t have that much exposed skin, but the cold invaded from all sides, causing him to shiver in cold.
Calvin realized he had to find warmth. He wouldn’t survive the cold. He began crawling down the cave, but it only seemed to get colder. Before he could turn back though, he began sliding. Instantly fear filled his entire body and he hugged his ankle and fingers to him. The ride was a lot smoother this time with few bumps. When it flattened out he wasn’t in any more pain than he was in previously, though that didn’t mean much. He moaned and shivered at the bottom of the ramp for several more minutes. That was when the cold started to get worse. He moaned and tried to continue, but his arms were beginning to stiffen up. He forced himself to continue, screaming the entire time. After what seemed like an eternity he saw light.
What if there was an entrance!? Maybe it opened right up near his car. His slow crawl speeded up slightly. When he turned the corner his heart sank and rose that the same time. It was a glowing orb of ice, seeming magical. No exit but maybe it produced some kind of heat! It wouldn’t make much sense but neither did it snowing 10 feet of snow in 30 minutes. He tried to start crawling towards it, but his arms and legs wouldn’t move. That final stop had finished him off.
Calvin froze.