Mountaintop Isolation - Journal Entry Three

Sunday, June 22, 2025

Morning

Dammit! The day started so well! Managed to get the fire going and it lasted until first light, around 8am. The dawn was spectacular - the cabin must be facing southeast because the sun rose over the mountains away to the left. I’ve never seen such incredible colour! It makes me think of greek legends and Apollo’s chariot, blazing across the sky. I could almost believe that a fiery god was ascending from the mountains to set the sky alight!

So much for a glorious dawn. Within an hour or so the sky was black again, snow falling, wind howling - the whole nine yards. There’s no sign of the others at all. Before the storm returned I managed to get through the snow a little way towards the car but couldn’t go far - it was too deep. In the end I came back to the cabin. I couldn’t risk sinking and not being able to get out. I saw a clip on YouTube ages ago about a snowboarder who wiped out going through a forest. He was upside down under a tree with his snowboard jammed into a snowdrift and couldn’t move. He was lucky and someone eventually came by, heard him shouting and got him out (he was almost completely buried by that time). No one is going to come by and dig me out up here.

Anyway, the firewood is finished inside but there’s a log pile by the cabin. “Easy!” Thinks city-boy - “I’ll just grab some!”. There’s that episode of Scrubs where JD has an opera singer telling him he’s making mistakes. I wish he’d been here! I think the pipes have burst at some point because there’s an ice patch round the side of the cabin. Of course, I slipped over - stands to reason that would happen!!! I think my ankle is twisted or sprained or something. I can walk on it - just - but it hurts. I did manage to get some logs in though, so the fire is going again and I’m pretty sure the storm will blow over soon. It can’t go on like this for long.

Tried to make some tea but there’s no running water. I guess the pipes have frozen. I’ll have to ration my water bottle or I could be like one of those arctic explorers and have to melt some snow to drink.

Evening

I can see now why they say you have to be an experienced outdoors person to be safe up here. The storm hasn’t stopped. I can’t believe how long it’s been going on for. It must be a mountains thing. I just heard a tearing sound from the back of the cabin and there was suddenly a massive gust of cold wind. Part of the frickin’ roof has come away!!! The fire is kind of useless now - the whole cabin is freezing cold AND the sun is going down.

No sign of the others at all! I don’t know where the hell they are. I’m guessing that they’ve just been stranded somewhere and can’t get through the drifts. Bit worried that no one knows if I made it here or not but I’m sure (I hope) they’d work it out. It was really weird that Matt got back in touch with me after, what, 5 years of silence. Ellie too - I though Sam and Ellie had moved to Mars or something, the way they just vanished.

Going to try to block the wind, stoke up the fire and get some sleep. Hopefully in a few hours the storm will have blown itself out and I’ll be able to try to get to the car again.