Chapter 17: Avalanche

"No one is allowed to talk, not even fart." The fat man said to us in a very quiet voice: "Everyone, look for any protruding rocks or ice cracks nearby. We are in trouble."

"Impossible." Lang Feng was dumbfounded: "I calculated the amount..."

Monk Hua covered Lang Feng's mouth, signaling him to talk later. Several people were sweating coldly, looking up, tiptoeing to carry their equipment, and looking for a place to take shelter. The snow layer above was not thick, and even if there was an avalanche, it would only be a small-scale collapse. However, the place where we stood was too bad, too close to the fracture surface. If the snow rushed down, we would be easily swept down. There was also a very steep slope below, and there was no place to escape.

The best way at this time is to do as the fat man said, find a protruding rock and hide under the rock, or find an ice crack. However, this should be something I saw in the movie "Vertical Limit", and I don't know if it actually works.

The bare rock where we were was too flat, and if we hid underneath it we would still be directly hit by the snow. The fat man pointed to a huge walnut-like stone on the side. There was an angle between it and the rock, so it should be more suitable.

The snow slope between us and the rock has completely disappeared, and what remains is the ice surface of the glacier, which is extremely slippery. There is no time to change ice skates at this time, so we have to bite the bullet and go on. The fat man tied the rope around his waist, gave one end to us, and bit it and stepped on the ice.

One step, two steps, three steps, every step was like stepping on eggs, I was waiting for the sound of the egg yolk splashing. But the fat man always impressed people from time to time. After three steps, he had climbed steadily to the opposite stone, pulled the rope around his waist, looked up, and waved for us to come over.

We pulled the rope, Pan Zi and Men You Ping first, then Lang Feng carrying Chen Pi Ah Si, then Ye Cheng carrying Shun Zi, and I was the last one. Seeing that they all passed safely, I felt much more relieved. At this time, snow blocks as big as watermelons were falling from above, and the crack in the snow could no longer support it. Fatty waved his hand and told me to hurry up.

I slapped my face, tied the other end of the rope around my waist, took the first step, and stood firmly on it.

I have always had poor balance since I was a child, and I had to fall and get bruised all over before I could learn to skate or ride a bike. I was even more panicked at this moment, and I felt that the ice under my feet seemed to disappear at any time, and my feet began to tremble involuntarily.

The fat guy knew at a glance that I was the most difficult one to deal with, and whispered, "Don't think too much, it's only two steps, you can jump over."

I looked at the distance between the fat man and me. Sure enough, as long as I could exert enough strength, I could definitely jump over him. Thinking of this, I gritted my teeth, stepped forward, twisted my waist, and tried to jump up.

But I didn't expect that when I was pushing hard, my feet suddenly sank. The ice I was standing on broke because too many people had stepped on it. My feet slipped on the slope and I slid down.

I grabbed at my hands and feet, but there was nowhere to put my strength on the ice, and I fell directly onto the taut rope, hanging on the ice cliff. I heard the carabiner click, and when I looked down, I saw that the buckle had opened, and my body was about to be unhooked.

I cursed in my heart, this damn Xibei guy must have produced it on voluntary basis!

The fat man pulled me and almost pulled me off the rock. Fortunately, Pan Zi grabbed his belt and several people held him back, so he was fine. They pulled the rope hard and pulled me up.

But every time I pulled, the rope loosened a little. I was extremely anxious. I tried to push off with my feet to find a place to fasten the buckle again, but the ice was too slippery. I could only step on it for a few seconds before sliding down. There was no way for me to gain leverage.

Seeing that the buckle was about to come off, I pulled out my mountaineering pick and banged it hard against the ice cliff, firmly locking it in. Then I stepped on it with my left foot and found a place to support myself. I lowered my head to change the mountaineering buckle, but before I could buckle it tightly, a strange vibration suddenly came from above my head.

I looked up and saw the people above me looking at me with idiotic eyes. Before I could react, a white snow mist suddenly exploded into the air, almost blocking my entire vision.

There's an avalanche!

There was no screaming, no time to be surprised. I didn't know what I was thinking at that moment. I just heard the fat man shouting beside me: "Grab the mountaineering pick! Stick to the ice!" Then all of a sudden, everything around me was dark. My body sank suddenly, and it seemed that suddenly a dozen people grabbed all the clothes on my body and pulled them down. The rope around my waist immediately dug into my flesh, and then a lot of snow air choked my lungs.

Then, I fell into chaos. The huge force hit every part of my body. I couldn't even lift my head. Soon my throat began to tighten. An extreme feeling of suffocation came from my lungs. I felt like I was thrown into a sugar-roasted chestnut machine. Countless cold things pressed on me and hit me from all directions. In an instant, my nose and mouth were full of the smell of snow foam.

It was then that I remembered that ice is an excellent conductor of shock, especially extremely thick ice, which has extremely strong resonance. The pickaxe just now finally catalyzed the formation of the avalanche.

I almost wanted to slap myself, but it was too late to regret. I was spinning around like a top. I wanted to grab the pickaxe, but I couldn't even feel where my hands were.

Just when my mind was confused and I didn't know what to do, suddenly, I felt the rope being pulled up, and then my body was pulled up a little.

I was shocked. It was Fatty and the others pulling me from that end. Hope suddenly ignited in my heart. The rope was still responding, which meant that the amount of snow in the avalanche was not very thick, and their strength could still be transmitted to me.

I hurriedly pulled at the snow flows around me and pushed my body upwards. After stumbling several times, with the help of the rope, my ears suddenly buzzed, my eyes lit up, and I emerged from the surface of the snow flow.

Fatty and his friends hid under the rock angle on one side. The snow rushed over the rocks and formed a snow waterfall in front of them. Several people were safe and sound. Fatty and Lang Feng pulled the rope and saw me being pulled out. They shouted and asked me, "Are you okay?"

I gasped and nodded, the snow was still falling on me, I pulled the rope hard, and started to move towards them. But the snow was too strong, I couldn't stand up, and I couldn't move even a little bit with my hands, so the fat man had to pull me and wait for the snow to pass.

The avalanche came and went quickly. In less than half a minute, the snow flow poured past me, leaving behind only a large amount of broken snow. I looked down and saw that the entire valley was covered with white mist. I was terrified that if I was washed down, I would be dead.

I was pulled under the rock, and several people were gasping for air with lingering fear. The fat man patted me and said, "You are really lucky, luckily it's just a collapse, and there is not much snow, otherwise this time not only you, but I will probably be pulled down too."

I don't know what expression I made. My mountaineering hat fell off, my ears were red from the cold, and I couldn't hear anything clearly. I could only pat him and turned to look at the surface of the glacier on the side.

The entire snow slope has poured down to the bottom of the valley, and a huge steep glacier is exposed in front of us. From time to time, broken snow rolls down from above, reminding us that there is a risk of a secondary avalanche.

The surface of the glacier is formed by the pressure of thousands of years of snow, which is what we often call "gravity ice". This kind of ice is naturally formed. In high-altitude mountainous areas, it will wrap around the entire mountain to form a glacier. It is usually found on snow-capped mountains, between the snow layer and the mountain, and is not too thick. There is also a lot of broken snow on the ice layer.

Except for the fat man, we had never seen an actual glacier. It was really shocking to see such a huge ice cliff exposed in the snow-capped mountain valley. Under the setting sun, it looked like a giant Diao brand super soap. We were a little dazed when we saw it.

Ye Cheng murmured on the side: "Lang Da's shot was not without results."

After watching for a while, everyone gradually reacted. Monk Hua turned on several flashlights and shone them into the ice, trying to find traces of the tomb. It was dark and bottomless inside. The thickness of ordinary snow mountain glaciers was only about 10 to 20 meters, but the thickness of this glacier seemed a bit abnormal.

The fat man had sharp eyes. At this moment, he suddenly exclaimed, as if he had discovered something, and snatched the flashlight from Monk Hua to shine it.

We looked with great effort in the direction of his flashlight. With the faint light penetrating, I saw a huge, faintly visible shadow deep in the dark blue, translucent glacier in the direction the fat man was shining. The shadow almost occupied half of the ice cliff and looked like a curled-up big-headed baby.