The disappearance of a mountaineer

 　　Sean Elaton has been a persistent climber since he was a child. His footprints are all over the mountains and mountains in the United States and Europe. Even after getting married, he often travels alone with his family. Spend the day conquering the most attractive mountains you go. Last year, he was on vacation in Dusseldorf, Germany, with his wife, Meghan, who is also a German teacher at the University of Missouri in the United States. The couple took their 12-year-old son Edan to Spain on a two-week backpacking adventure. They set off in December to travel and climb mountains in the southern mountains, tasting local delicacies and mellow red wines along the way at their leisure. Sean, 45, is especially looking forward to soloing the 11,413-foot Mount Murascen, the highest peak in Spain with exposed rocks in Sierra Nevada, Spain. If the weather is clear, people can stand on the top of the mountain and look out over Morocco across the Mediterranean Sea.

　　The three of Sean's family came to a ski village near Murassen Mountain and pitched their tent in a nearby grove. During this season of the year, the snow on the trails up the mountain is firm and unobstructed, and climbers only need to spend 4 hours at a steady pace to climb to the top of the wide topography of Murassen. The next morning, Xiendo put on two warm clothes and set out in the dark red Zhanxi.

　　As the day passed and the sky was getting dark, Meigang and his son were lying in the tent and couldn't help but worry. "When will papa be back?" Aidan asked again and again. "Why hasn't he come back?"

　　"Honey, he'll be back soon," Megang assured his son again. In the past, Edan's father used to come back late from his excursions. But over time, after midnight, Megang got up and took his son to town for help. The village that was so popular during the day was silent. On the sling shrouded in darkness, the chair lift hung eerily in the air. Megan doesn't speak Spanish. After asking the staff on duty in a hotel for directions, they circled the village and returned to the same spot. Waiting for dawn seemed to be the only way. "Edan was upset," Meghan later recalled. "He felt something was going to happen. He had the instincts of a child."

　　

　　(2)

　　

　　Sean climbed to a few hundred feet from the summit of Mt. Murassen at about 3 p.m., and instead of going any further, he wandered around for a while as the upward road became steep and covered with snow and ice. Clouds and mist began to cover the entire mountain, and the original path became unrecognizable. It was getting dark and it was raining. Sean realized at this moment that he had made a mistake - he should have gone down the mountain earlier. "You're going to get wet, and it's going to get dark soon," Sean said when recalling the scene. Fortunately, he found a hut made of rocks not far away. "I can't lose my way and go to the other side of the mountain. It's better to stay in the house for a night and wait for the sun to rise." Entering the cabin, the light is very dark, cold and damp, there is a small table, a few pieces of wood The rudimentary bunks were made, one of which was covered with foam. Sean closed the ventilated wooden door that could barely lean against the door frame, then took out a piece of chocolate from his backpack and lay down after eating. It may be easier to return at dawn. The loner fantasized about everyone's surprise when he returned safely, and gradually fell asleep. In the middle of the night, between one or two o'clock, Sean was suddenly awakened by a noise from outside the door. What's that sound? He got up and walked to the door to visit. "Ah! It's a pack of wolves!" Sean exclaimed, seeing many greedy eyes flashing in the not-so-dark night. In a hurry, he grabbed the ski pole, put one end behind the door and the other end on the ground, then sat down behind the door and pushed the door with his own body. Several wolves outside the door seemed to smell the smell of someone in the house at this time, rushed to the door, and kept digging on the door with their claws. "As long as I hold the door, you guys don't want to come in." Sean turned his head from time to time through the crack of the door to monitor the hungry wolves that were still wandering and roaming outside the door, trying his best to think of ways to deal with the wolves...

　　In a daze, I don't know how long it took, and Sean woke up from the drowsy state. It was already 5:00 in the morning. He peered out the door again, and the wolves were gone. The feeling of fear hanging in my heart - all of a sudden disappeared. At about 6 o'clock, Sean opened the door, got up and walked down the mountain. He crossed a wide bowl-shaped terrain and came to the edge of a snow-covered mountain with a steep slope. The other side of the ridge was a ski area. Sean thought he could easily descend the slope. He moved forward smoothly on the snow. Suddenly, a gust of wind swept across the ridge, nearly knocking him down. A few minutes later, a blizzard hit the sky. "If I climb over this ridge, the descent will be much smoother." Sean pondered as he marched against the wind and snow.

　　However, the ridge always seemed to be far away and impenetrable, and Sean knew it was dangerous to stay on the exposed slope and had to find another route down the mountain. At this point, he didn't know where he was, but he thought he should find a trail going down.

　　Sean carefully observed the thick snow in front of him, it seemed hard and smooth. It would have been nice to have those studded iron soles, he regretted it a little—even an ice axe! It would have helped him cleave a safe passage. There is only one pair of ski poles around. Sean stretched out one foot to try the frozen snow, and then stepped on it slowly. Although he was able to maintain balance for a while, when he lifted the other foot, his body began to slide down the hill along the very steep slope, and the slide was faster and faster, and then the whole body collided and rolled on the snow and bare rocks. . After falling a few hundred feet, Sean sat down on the snow with his legs stretched straight forward, as if he was sitting there nibbling on a sandwich.

　　Sean sat for a while to clear his head. There was only a ski cap on his head, which seemed to be fine, but the trousers on his left leg were torn, and a large piece of the skin was removed, exposing the muscles, and blood began to ooze from the knee. He carefully checked the wound, and tried hard to stand up, but the injured left leg couldn't support his body, causing him to fall face down on the snow all of a sudden, a panic feeling spread all over his body. The people who could help him were miles away, in this desolate place, where no one would set foot for days, maybe even weeks... Sean sat on the snow in despair. How long can I stay here?

　　Sean got up again and tried to move forward, but fell to the ground again. Blood poured out from the two deep wounds, and the surrounding white snow was stained red. He dragged his injured leg and tried to crawl forward, but the progress was extremely slow, and every step was painful.

　　An idea sprouted in Sean's mind: Isn't the ski pole retractable? So he shortened the ski pole, used it as a crutch to support the ground, then straightened the injured leg, and slowly leaned his weight forward, putting the weight of the whole body under pressure. On the uninjured leg, he slowly moved his footsteps, 10 steps, 20 steps...

　　Finally, Sean reached the path he had walked earlier. The trail follows the edge of the slope into a forest below the tree line. It was originally relatively wide, but the landslide caused by the harsh winter covered some sections of the road, making it difficult for him to walk. Night fell gradually. Sean took out a dome light from his backpack and put it on his head, then ate some oatmeal cakes he brought with him and took a few sips of water.

　　

　　(3) The

　　

　　night finally passed. The next morning, Meghan and Aidan waved from the roadside and stopped a police patrol car. Using simple Spanish in the traveler's dictionary, she told the policeman who was driving the disappearance of her husband. The officer took the mother and son to a police station. After receiving the report, the Gardia Civil Service immediately dispatched a six-person search team led by police officer Ruben Santos. At this point, 24 hours have passed since Sean set off to climb Mt. The weather has changed drastically. A blizzard blanketed the upper half of the mountain, with surface winds reaching more than 60 miles per hour, and all ski lifts up the mountain were shut down. This kind of blizzard is quite common in Siraniwada, and if people stay in the mountains, they are very likely to freeze to death. In 2006, three British climbers died near the summit in similar climatic conditions.

　　Santos and his group got into a sled and drove down the snow, and after reaching the top of the ski area, they started walking. There is snow all around,

Very poor visibility. Santos pondered, if someone really got caught in this kind of environment, I'm afraid it would be a disaster.

　　Megang and his son are back at the campsite. They dismantled the tent and moved to a hotel in town with their daily necessities; the hotel owner provided them with free rooms and meals. Here, mother and son can easily keep in touch with the team searching for Sean by phone. In order to keep his son from thinking wildly, Megang took Aidan to a coffee shop and played games. Before dark, she returned to the campsite with the Galdia Civil Service staff to do the rest. They wrote a note, sealed it in a plastic bag, and hung it from a tree to tell Sean where they went once he got back.

　　Megang tried to be strong, but when she looked at her son, tears flowed involuntarily. After a few more hours, the search team returned with nothing. Witnessing this result, Meigang's body and mind almost collapsed. "Although we were not deeply religious, we kept kneeling beside the bed in the room and praying for his safe return."

　　By the next night, the situation had gotten worse. "I just can't erase the image that always comes to my mind: Sean is injured, lying on the snow, and the blizzard keeps falling on him," Megand said. Early in the morning, she filled out a report on her husband's disappearance, handed it to the local police, and returned to the hotel, where she sat on the bed with Aidan, waiting anxiously.

　　

　　(4)

　　

　　All night long, Sean moved forward tenaciously on the snow, his injured leg was stiff, and the blood had coagulated. The trail seemed to go on forever, and he finally reached a rough dirt road. Along this dirt road, Sean walked for more than ten minutes, and saw a roadblock in front of him, which read: "Don't cross, the bridge in front has been washed away. The road is closed."

　　Sean turned around and walked slowly towards a few houses not far away. "I'm finally saved," he thought. At the entrance of what appeared to be a restaurant, a watchdog barked. Since he had no strength to shout, Sean picked up a stone from the ground and threw it at the window of the house, but no one appeared. Sean, who was starving and cold, found a warehouse next to him, and immediately crawled into it. He sat on the ground and immediately felt an uncontrollable trembling. This is a symptom of hypothermia that will occur. Sean realized that if he sat there, he would freeze to death. So he forced himself to stand up again.

　　This time, with all his strength, Sean pushed open the heavy gate and walked to what looked like a coffee shop. Through the window, he saw an old couple cleaning the room inside. A few minutes later, the old couple opened the door, and when they saw Sean standing by the door, they screamed, seeming to accuse him of breaking into the fence. However, when their eyes fell on Sean's injured leg, they seemed to understand what was going on. When Sean explained in a few words of Spanish he only knew, the host had helped him into the room and asked his wife to pass him a glass of red wine.

　　"You must be the missing American," the old lady said in Spanish. "They're looking for you. I heard that on the news."

　　"Yes, yes," Sean said. "I'm sure they're looking for me." The

　　phone rang. Megang and Edan, who were waiting in the room, jumped up to answer the phone. A police officer's voice came over the microphone, telling Megang that her husband had been found. He is now being taken to hospital by ambulance from the Gardia Civil Service. Megang and Aidan rushed out of the room and ran to the lobby of the hotel to shout to everyone they encountered that Sean was still alive.

　　The mother and son rushed to the hospital quickly and saw Sean lying on a gurney in the corridor. "We thought you'd never come back!" Meghan said. Sean's injury is obviously not minor. In addition to a broken knee, a tendon has also been ruptured. Nurses are preparing him for surgery. A few hours later, Sean, who had completed the operation, was pushed out of the operating room. According to doctors, although the surgery went well, the recovery period in the future could be as long as several months.

　　After 10 days, Sean was released from the hospital and the family celebrated by eating a pizza at a local home. They then flew back to Germany on an evening flight, where Sean will have a period of physiotherapy.

　　Four months after the injury, Sean was back in Muratson again. His left leg is still recovering, but he can put some of his weight on it with the help of a metal crutch. So, after overcoming all the difficulties he faced, he finally reached the top this time. Standing on the top of the mountain, Sean looked far into the distance, along the blue Mediterranean water, and the African land on the other side seemed to be vivid in his eyes.

　　“You seem to feel quite healthy standing there on a sunny day,” Sean said of his experience later. "Yet you realize how flippantly a person can sometimes underestimate this mountain."

　　"I do think that the news I called the U.S. to report to his family was negative," Megang added. "I understand that if Sean doesn't have the perseverance on the mountain and doesn't insist on finding a way to slowly descend the mountain, he may freeze to death there... Our family finally got a happy ending."