This is not fear, but something more primal.
The moment he saw the blue husky sticker on the helmet, something clicked in his mind.
It was a child.
He didn't dwell on those emotions.
Within three seconds, his vision had completed a full scan of the ravine terrain.
The descent route is on the right rock face, with two natural footholds and a drop divided into three sections.
The snowpack at the bottom of the gully is thick enough to cushion the impact, but it's uncertain whether there's hidden ice or gravel beneath the snow.
Overhead, the leaden-gray cloud cover along the ridgeline of Pyramid Mountain had already fallen below eye level.
The blizzard's vanguard has arrived.
The temperature has dropped by at least three to four degrees in the past five minutes.
The wind speed continued to rise, and the intervals between winds were getting shorter.
There's no time left.
Su Wei removed the roll of static rope from the D-ring of his belt.
He looped the rope end around the protruding basalt rock on the right.
The rock is embedded in the permafrost at its base, so it can withstand heavy loads.
He used the double-winding method.
The rope was wrapped around the rock twice and secured with a single knot at the end.
The excess rope ends were tucked into the rock crevices to prevent them from being blown away by the wind.
He tugged, the rope tightened, and the rock didn't budge.
The palms of the winter gloves have silicone anti-slip particles.
However, when you grip the rope tightly, the force distribution in your fingers will still shift.
Su Wei bit down hard on the wrist cuff of his left glove with his teeth to ensure a proper fit.
Grasp the rope with both hands alternately.
The soles of my boots touched the first point on the edge of the rock face.
He leaned back, shifting his weight entirely to the rope.
decline.
The first one-meter drop went smoothly.
There was enough friction surface on the rock face, and the rubber outsole of the boot gripped the rock surface.
His body slid down at a steady pace.
In the second section, the rock face became wet.
The seepage water froze on the stone surface, forming a thin layer of ice that was almost invisible.
The moment the boot sole touched his skin, Su Wei felt a slippery sensation.
With the contact area decreasing sharply, the friction also drops drastically.
His right foot immediately veered three centimeters to the left, stepping into a dry crack next to the thin ice.
The boot toe slid in, stabilizing his body.
The rope had left marks on the webs of both hands, and you could feel the heat even through the gloves.
The last paragraph.
There were no more reliable footholds left, but the bottom of the ditch was less than a meter away.
Su Wei released his left hand and let his body slide down the rope.
This freefall, lasting less than a second, is very fast.
The soles of their boots pressed down firmly into the powdery snow at the bottom of the ditch.
The impact travels from the ankle down the shinbone to the knee.
He bent his knees, absorbing most of the potential energy.
The snow surface collapsed by about ten centimeters, and the soles of my boots hit the hard crust underneath.
Landed safely.
The ravine was very narrow, and his shoulders were almost pressed against the rock walls on both sides.
The sky overhead was compressed into a narrow, grayish-white slit.
The wind blew in through the cracks, and the swirling snowflakes stung his face.
Su Wei turned around.
The fluorescent green children's ski suits are just a step away.
A child's curled-up posture is not entirely a form of active defense.
His right side was pressed against the gravel and snow, while his left side was facing upwards, his back arched.
The inversion angle of the right ankle is more severe than it appears from above.
But what's most concerning is the sound.
It wasn't the dull thud that used to hit the rock wall.
A faint rustling sound came from the hood of the fluorescent green ski suit.
The noise came from under the crooked helmet with a blue sled dog printed on it.
The sound continued unabated and was impossible to control.
The sound of teeth chattering violently.
That was a high-frequency collision of the upper and lower jawbones that was beyond conscious control.
Each collision was short and sharp, rapid to the point of spasm.
That's a stress response where skeletal muscles involuntarily contract to generate heat after the body's core temperature drops below 35 degrees Celsius.
Hypothermia.
Su Wei knelt down on one knee in the snow, his left hand already zipping up the first-aid kit in the side pocket of his camel pack.
"Hey."
His voice wasn't loud, but with the added echo of the narrow ravine, it clearly penetrated into the fluorescent green mass.
Can you hear me?
The clucking stopped for half a second.
Then, the tilted white helmet moved slightly, almost imperceptibly.
Half of his face was visible beneath the helmet.
One eye was visible, with a gray-green iris and a pupil shrunk to the size of a pinhead.
The skin around the eyes appears unnaturally pale.
The color of her lips had changed from red to bluish-purple.
His lips moved slightly, but no sound came out.
But when that gray-green eye looked at Su Wei, something within it had not yet been extinguished.
The zipper of the first aid kit was torn open, and Su Wei's fingers touched the aluminum foil packaging of the silver emergency thermal blanket.
Above the ravine, the whistling of the wind suddenly rose in pitch.
The first snowflakes of the blizzard's vanguard poured down from a three-meter-high crevice.
They pelted down heavily on Su Wei's back.
Chapter 216 The Cruel First Aid in Extreme Cold
The wind and snow pelted his back, but Su Wei did not look up.
The first aid kit was already unzipped, and he quickly used his hands to brush the snow off the boy.
The fluorescent green ski suit was visible.
The boy, along with the board, was stuck at the bottom of the crevice between two huge basalt rocks.
His right snowboard was halfway off, but the bindings were still gripping his snow boot.
Su Wei's gaze shifted downwards.
On the right calf of the boy's hiking pants, the fabric was being pushed up by a hard object.
It was an obtuse angle that defied the natural structure of the human body, but the surface was intact and there was no blood seepage.
Closed tibial fracture; the bone is broken and displaced.
Su Wei tore off his right-hand winter glove and stuffed it into his pocket.