‘We should make sure,’ Zoe said. ‘We should help if we can. We have to do everything we can.’

Jake nodded. ‘Right. Right. Listen, this is what I want to do. I’m gonna put the skis on. This is a short lift. I’ll take the drag to the top. If he’s around, if he was out doing maintenance, he’ll be somewhere close to the track of the drag.’

‘You think it’s a waste of time?’

‘We couldn’t live with ourselves if we didn’t try. He might be lying there injured.’

Zoe took her lavender wool hat and put it on again. ‘Okay. I’ll come with you.’

‘No. You’re exhausted. And it will be quicker for me on skis.’

‘I want to come.’

‘Zoe, I don’t mind telling you, you look terrible. Your eyes are red bloodshot, too. I didn’t want to upset you. Maybe it was the pressure of the snow. But you look shaky. I’ll just satisfy myself that there’s no one lying on the track. If he’s underneath the snow, there’s nothing I can do anyway. Okay?’

Zoe blinked. They knew each other well enough. They both had a strong sense of the right thing to do, and she knew Jake would go ahead and do it.

Jake kept a small screwdriver in his bumbag for adjusting the bindings on their skis and he was already employing it to adapt the found skis to fit his boots.

Jake hit some switches until the machinery started up again and the steel wheel overhead began rotating. Zoe went outside to where the T-bars were stacked up on the drag loop and tugged one of the poles around, waiting for him to shuffle into place. She handed him the T-bar and he took it without a word. Suddenly she didn’t want him to leave her. She watched as the lonely drag pulled him up the slope and out of sight. It was still snowing. She went back inside the cabin.

The cabin was warm but she was shaking. She tried to close her eyes but when she did so violent images of the immediate impact of the avalanche came at her like hissing snakes. She felt her stomach squeeze.