WEBVTT

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The silence at 10 .000 feet has a

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weight of its own.

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Cailin adjusted the straps of his heavy pack.

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his breath pluming in the freezing dawn air

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as pale. ghostly light began to bleed over

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the horizon.

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Below him. the vast valley was entirely swallowed

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by a shifting ocean of winter fog. hiding

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the jagged drop -offs and the dense. sleeping

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pine forest that choked the canyon floor.

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He had started his ascent the previous afternoon.

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racing a bitter winter storm that had now

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mercifully blown itself out. leaving behind a pristine.

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otherworldly quiet.

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Ahead of him. the mountain range rose like

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the spine of a sleeping titan. its jagged.

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snow -capped peaks slicing sharply into the lavender

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sky.

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Every crevice and ridge of the detailed rock

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texture glistened with a thin. crystalline

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glaze of frost. catching the first amber rays

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of the rising sun.

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Cailin took a slow. measured step onto the

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narrow ridge. his crampons biting firmly into

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the crust of old snow.

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This was the final stretch.

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As the pale dawn light continued to wash

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over the misty landscape. the fog below began

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to

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churn and part. briefly revealing the sprawling emerald

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canopy of pines far beneath.

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He smiled beneath his scarf. feeling wonderfully small

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against the colossal landscape and pressed

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forward into the crisp morning wind.