The Drop Read online

  The Drop

  Jeff Ross

  orca sports

  ORCA BOOK PUBLISHERS

  Copyright © 2011 Jeff Ross

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system now known or to be invented, without permission in writing from the publisher.

  Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication

  Ross, Jeff, 1973-

  The drop [electronic resource] / Jeff Ross.

  (Orca sports)

  Electronic monograph in PDF format.

  Issued also in print format.

  ISBN 978-1-55469-393-1

  I. Title. II. Series: Orca sports (Online)

  PS8635.O6928D76 2011A JC813'.6 C2010-908001-7

  First published in the United States, 2011

  Library of Congress Control Number: 2010942089

  Summary: When Alex and three other snowboarders find themselves in trouble in the remote mountains of British Columbia, Alex must confront his fears and lead them to safety.

  Orca Book Publishers is dedicated to preserving the environment and has printed this book on paper certified by the Forest Stewardship Council.

  Orca Book Publishers gratefully acknowledges the support for its publishing programs provided by the following agencies: the Government of Canada through the Canada Book Fund and the Canada Council for the Arts, and the Province of British Columbia through the BC Arts Council and the Book Publishing Tax Credit.

  Typesetting by Christine Toller

  Cover photography by Getty Images

  Author photo by Simon Bell

  ORCA BOOK PUBLISHERS ORCA BOOK PUBLISHERS

  PO BOX 5626, Stn. B PO BOX 468

  Victoria, BC Canada Custer, WA USA

  V8R 6S4 98240-0468

  www.orcabook.com

  Printed and bound in Canada.

  14 13 12 11 • 4 3 2 1

  To Megan, for her patience. To my parents, who always let me have “just one more run,” and to my kids.

  Contents

  chapter one

  chapter two

  chapter three

  chapter four

  chapter five

  chapter six

  chapter seven

  chapter eight

  chapter nine

  chapter ten

  chapter eleven

  chapter twelve

  chapter thirteen

  chapter fourteen

  chapter fifteen

  chapter sixteen

  chapter seventeen

  chapter eighteen

  chapter nineteen

  chapter twenty

  Acknowledgments

  Titles in the Series orca sports

  chapter one

  The helicopter pitched forward, almost tossing me out the open door. I grabbed the safety handle and pushed my goggles down over my eyes. There was a tap on my back. I turned around to see Dave waving at me to get out. In the front of the chopper, the copilot was making little circular motions with his hand. I knew what that meant: jump. The wind tossed the helicopter around and threw pellets of snow that felt like gravel on my face.

  I shifted my snowboard away from where I had it wedged against the door. The helicopter jerked backward again, and I held on to the safety handle with all my strength.

  “Take a deep breath,” our instructor, Sam, said into my ear. I turned to look at him, and he smiled his big white smile. “Now exhale.” I nodded. “And then you just float out.” His hand drifted before him like a feather falling to earth. I nodded again. Inhaled, like he had told me.

  Exhaled.

  “Go, Alex,” Dave shouted. Dave had been heli-boarding half a dozen times. This was the first time I had ever even been in a helicopter.

  Never mind jumping out of one.

  I inched my board forward and let it dangle over the edge. The ground was thick and white, like a giant duvet. The rotor blades of the helicopter forced the snow up and out. It seemed like I was about to fall into a cloud. I wanted to jump, but you know what they say—the first step is the hardest.

  I inhaled again.

  Exhaled.

  Then I jumped.

  It felt like I was falling forever. When my board finally touched down, I bent my knees to soften the impact. It still made my spine shake and sent a shiver through my entire body. But at least I was on the ground. The helicopter was floating above one of the highest peaks in British Columbia, far from the lift lines and groomed trails of Whistler Mountain. The powder was so deep here that there wasn’t even a chance that the helicopter could land. So you had to jump.

  I hopped a couple of times to get going. Then I leaned into the downhill and pushed hard to break free from the tornado-like conditions.

  When I came out the other side of the whirlwind of snow, the world was bright blue and glaring white. I could see forever. In the distance, other peaks poked into the clouds. I had never been up this high on a mountain before. I did two quick turns, dug in hard on my toe edge and settled in beside Bryce and Hope, two of the other Backcountry Patrol hopefuls.

  “What took you so long?” Hope asked.

  “My board got caught on the door.”

  The little bit of Hope’s face that wasn’t covered by pink tuque, goggles or neck warmer screwed up in a familiar way. “You mean you got scared.”

  I pointed at the front of my board. “It got stuck on the doorframe. I had to get it out. I didn’t want to scrape up the bottom.”

  “Seriously, Alex, how many rails did you do yesterday?” she said. “And now you want me to believe you are suddenly all concerned about the bottom of your board?”

  I had spent the last two weeks training with Dave, Hope and Bryce. Dave was arrogant, but he didn’t have the skills to back up his talk. Bryce was the best nonprofessional snowboarder I had ever seen. When the rest of us were making big jumpy turns down the hill, Bryce was cutting smooth lines. He was good— great even. But it was nothing to him. Just something he could do. Hope was… well, I don’t even know how to explain what Hope was. First off, she’s a girl. Not that I think girls shouldn’t be Backcountry Patrollers—just not this girl. I could only imagine what she would do if she found someone half dead in the woods or caught on a ledge. My guess was that, at best, she might become a groomed-slope Ski Patroller. Which, as far as I was concerned, was about the worst thing you could be.

  “Believe whatever you want, Hope.” I knelt down on the ground, my board out behind me, and let the cool breeze rush across my face. The helicopter was pitching in the wind. It went forward, then back, then a little higher, then down so low that it almost touched the ground. Suddenly Dave dropped out of the side of the helicopter and disappeared into the tornado of snow. A moment later he was beside us, wiping snow from his goggles.

  “Nice one,” Bryce said. Dave nodded as though he already knew it had been a nice jump. The helicopter pitched back again, then lifted up another twenty feet off the ground. “What’s happening?” I asked. Sam, our instructor and lone connection to the rest of the world, was still on board.

  “He said he’d be right behind me,” Dave said. We watched as the helicopter rose again, higher into the endless sky.

  “He can’t just leave us,” Hope said.

  “Maybe it’s part of the test,” Bryce said.

  “Leaving us on the side of the mountain?” Hope said. “Alone? That is not what I signed up for.” The chopper lifted slightly, and Sam slid out the open door. He fell for a moment and then grabbed the landing skid. He did a couple of quick chin-ups, held the back edge of his board with one hand and let go of the skid.

  He seemed to fall in slow motion, twi
sting at the same time. Just before he hit the ground, he kicked the board out and disappeared from view. It was like watching an Olympic high diver.

  Beautiful.

  “What was that?” Bryce said, obviously impressed.

  “Wow,” Dave said, giving his head a little shake. Fifteen years ago, Sam Jenkins had been considered the best snowboarder on the planet. He had been the first professional boarder to do a 900 in a half-pipe during competition. That’s two and a half full turns in the air. And this was back in the days when snowboards were so long and heavy that it took an amazing amount of strength just to launch yourself into the air. But Sam was one of those people who seemed to defy gravity. He was on the cover of magazines and won or placed in every competition he entered. There was even an early video of him and another pro boarder, Mike Carolina, tackling a hill that skiers had all but given up on.

  Then one day he and Mike Carolina disappeared.

  No one knew where they had gone. People said they were traveling the globe, looking for the highest peaks. The most extreme verts. Others thought they’d turned their talents to surfing and were in Australia or Hawaii riding waves. But no one really knew. Now Mike Carolina was still missing, and Sam was the man who would decide whether we would become Backcountry Patrollers and work the back hills of British Columbia, or if we would be shuffled over to the Ski Patrol. The difference between the two was night and day. Ski Patrollers ride lifts all day, warn people not to stand around in certain spots, and pick little kids up off the bunny slopes. Maybe, just maybe, now and then Ski Patrollers have to go off trail to drag someone out of the bush. Backcountry Patrol was something different altogether.

  Something brand-new.

  Backcountry Patrollers had nothing to do with groomed slopes and bunny trails. They were sent in when someone got into trouble while skiing or snowboarding in the backcountry. Until now, it had always been a job for skiers accompanied by snowmobiles. But last winter a snowboarder had managed to get into and out of the bush and save a woman who had gone off a cliff where no one else—not skiers or snowmobilers—had been able to do a thing. We’d been told early on that only one or two of us would be selected to work with the Backcountry Patrol. If we passed these tests, our job would be to help people who were in serious danger.

  Our job would be to save lives.

  “Where’d he go?” Bryce asked now. We were huddled behind a large outcropping. The helicopter had lifted off and disappeared into the clouds that almost touched the top of this peak.

  It was silent and cold. Colder than I thought it would be. And with the helicopter gone, all I could hear was the wind rushing across the blank white space.

  “Well, he has to be somewhere. He couldn’t just disappear,” Hope said. Bryce took a couple of jumps toward the little ledge behind us. His goggles shone in the bright sunlight. It was a beautiful sunny day. But there were dark clouds in the distance.

  “There he is,” Bryce said. Sam looked like a child, waving at us from the bottom of four fairly big drops. Our two-way radios crackled.

  “All right, guys,” Sam’s voice came through, muffled and tossed around by the wind. “Time for your first test. Over.”

  Dave grabbed his radio and raised it to his face. “How did you get down there? Over.”

  “I rode my board, David. Now it’s time to see what you four have in you. And since you just volunteered, David, you can go first. Over.”

  “Where? Over.”

  “Down here. Four easy drops,” Sam said. “The first two are about ten feet, maybe twelve. The third is only five or six and the final one…Well, you’ll see. Over.” Sam insisted we finish all our communications with “Over.”

  Dave turned to us. He wore these giant goggles and his hat down low, but his lips quivered, and he mashed a gloved hand on the back of his head whenever he was nervous. Which was often. “Bryce should go first,” Dave said. “He’s already at the edge.” There was nothing from the radio. “Sam?” No response. “Sam?” Dave looked more worried.

  “Are we missing something here, David? Over.” Sam sounded irritated.

  Dave shook his head. “Bryce should go first. He’s on the edge already. Over.”

  “Fine. Bryce, would you like to go first? Over,” Sam said. Bryce jumped off the ledge he was perched on and shot down the side of the mountain without a word. “I’ll take that as a yes. Over.”

  It was an impressive run. First he cut around an outcropping, and then he spun into an open space and aimed himself toward the drops. Everything he did was compact and tight. There didn’t seem to be a single wasted movement.

  “Your turn, David. Over,” Sam said. Dave nodded a couple of times. He put the radio in his pocket and then pulled it out again.

  “Any hints, Bryce? Over,” he said. His hand was shaking.

  “Just hit them straight. Maybe pull back a little before the third one or you’ll have too much speed for the last one,” Bryce said. The radio crackled off, then back on again. “Oh. Over.” Dave put the radio back in his pocket and made a big production of zipping it up.

  “Just go, Dave,” Hope said.

  “I’m going. I’m going.”

  “Then goooooooo.”

  Dave patted himself down one last time. Then he jumped over the side of the ledge.

  His run was awkward. He slowed almost to a stop just before each drop and then kind of fell over the side. He always landed on his board, although after the second drop, he had to jump a couple of times to get going again.

  It wasn’t pretty. But he got to the end of it and settled in beside Sam and Bryce.

  “All right, Alex. Your turn. Over,” Sam said. I didn’t even bother to respond. I just jumped, twisted my board in the air and pushed hard toward the first drop.

  chapter two

  I tried to follow Bryce’s line down the slope. But by the time I got to the first drop, I was going way too fast. I stuttered, dug deep with my heel edge, then twisted back, head-on to the drop and sailed off. “Bend your knees,” I told myself as I landed. Powder flew everywhere. I cut a little farther than Bryce’s line and straightened out for the second drop. It came faster than I had expected, but I managed to get squared to it and keep the front tip of my board up as I dropped off. I went toe edge, leaning forward, and did a nice slow arc. Flipped to my heel edge, leaning way back as the board dug into the powder, and aimed at the third drop. It was easy enough. Not even really a drop, but more of a steep incline.

  Then came the fourth drop.

  It didn’t look like anything until I noticed the lip on it. It was like a launch pad. I tried to crouch when I hit it to lessen the amount of air I got, but it was impossible. I sailed off, and my board got kind of wobbly beneath me. I reached down, grabbed the back side of my board, right between my heels. Just before I landed, I gave it a little twist. Flair, you know. Style.

  I did a couple of quick turns in the deep powder. Then I carved up and around to where the others stood.

  “Nice,” Sam said. “But tricks are not appreciated out here. Remember?”

  “It wasn’t really a trick,” I said. “I had to stabilize my board and…” Sam waved a hand at me, all the while looking up the mountain. His blond curls flipped out beneath his tuque. His eyes were hidden behind a pair of sunglasses, but I knew they were an icy blue. I couldn’t think of a time I’d ever seen him wear goggles. He tilted the glasses down a little and looked at me.

  “It’s all right out here today. But think about this when you’re on Backcountry Patrol. You do a trick, jam yourself up, and you’re done. So is whoever you were sent out to save. Cool?”

  “Cool,” I replied. I turned away from the rest of them as a giddy grin crossed my face. Sam had said when you’re on Backcountry Patrol. Not if, but when.

  We all looked uphill to where Hope stood. She was all pink. A maddening pink. A bright, glowing pink blob of cotton candy caught on the side of the mountain. Even her board, an evo 5150, and bindings were pink. I mean, you can
like a color and all, but seriously. Mix it up a little.

  Sam pulled out his two-way and spoke into it.

  “All right, girl, your go. Show us your stuff. Over.” There was no response. “Hope? Over.” Again, no response. He turned to me. “Did she have her radio on?” I shrugged. “Hope can you hear me? Over.” “Yeah,” came her little voice.

  “Yeah what? Over.”

  “Yeah. Over.”

  “Better. It’s your go. Over.” Sam let his arm drop by his side. He was moving his gloved thumb up and down the radio.

  “She’s scared,” Dave said. Bryce picked up his radio and held it to his face.

  “Hope, you there? Over.”

  “Yeah. Over.”

  “It’s nothing. Three little drops. The fourth one has a lip on it, so bend your knees when you hit it. That way you’ll absorb it and not get launched. No problem. Over.” There was no response.

  “Oh man, we’re going to be out here all day waiting for her to go,” Dave said. The sun was getting higher and warming the air. It was almost noon, and the clouds that had been pushing in on us seemed to be heading south. It was still cold, but nice to feel the sunshine.

  The pom-pom on Hope’s tuque suddenly jumped into the air. A moment later she was cutting a large half circle toward the first drop. It looked good. She was following the line Dave had taken. Just before the first drop, she kicked out twice on her toe side and drifted slowly toward the edge. She dropped over much like I had, though she didn’t bend her knees. The impact actually caused her to pick up more speed, and suddenly she was shooting toward the second drop. She came off it straight, landed flat, wobbled and got up on her toe side again. It looked like she was going to wipe out off the third drop. Somehow she managed to get herself straight enough to float over. Then she aimed herself at the final drop. She was heading straight at it, bent down, in perfect position to launch. But instead of holding this pose, she suddenly slid sideways, and hit the lip at a bit of an angle. She got huge air, floating up and out farther than any of the rest of us had. The only problem was that she was sideways to the hill. Land like that, and it isn’t just doing a face-plant you have to worry about. I cringed, not really wanting to see what was going to happen next.