I was just cleaning one of the bunkhouse toilets when the shout came via my mobile.

‘Pick up Glan Dena soon as’

“Dad! Got a call-out! Gotta go!”

He nodded, passing me my grab-sack and lid, the gloves sitting inside.

“At least it’s a decent day for it, love. Any idea where?”

“No, just get to the hut and meet up. Get briefed there, I assume”

“Good luck, love. Let us know as soon as you are able”

“Of course. Got to go”

I set the Honda’s little engine running, rolling off down the hill towards the A5, and a glance in my rear-view mirror showed Dad answering his own phone, which threw me. Please: let this not be one of those big, messy jobs where they called out every competent local they knew. As I got past the caravan park, a marked police car overtook me, blue lights flashing away, giving a short blast of its siren as it passed the park entrance.

Hell.

By the time I got to the top of the hill, he was well out of sight, so I just concentrated on getting up to our HQ and finding somewhere out of the way to stash my bike. Three cars pulled in as I unfastened my helmet, and then we were settling into chairs and against the walls as the briefing started.

Our leader was a lot calmer than I felt, and with a wry smile, he told us that we were no longer in a hurry, or at least not that much of one.

“Body recovery, I am afraid, and no, folks, not like that. This one sounds like natural causes, and yes, we all know that’s meaningless, but, well, this is going to be a lift up, certify by the Doc, recover and Ysbyty Gwynedd. I am reliably informed the casualty’s party has support in place, or at least on route to them, and will not…”

He paused, taking a slow, deep breath.

“I am hopeful that the rest of the party will sort themselves out without incurring further need of us. Helicopter is due in thirty minutes, so plenty of time to kit up. No need for access kit, ropes, etc, apart from a couple of stretchers. Yes, one casualty only, BUT”

The day before had been so different, Dad so calm on the initial stance.

“This is your route, love. How could you not climb it?”

I kept my reply to a nod, chalking my hands after acting on Dad’s last bit of advice before starting the crack on The Rainbow of Recalcitrance. Once that crack was done, it would change to an almost constant traverse, and if I peeled it might be a massive pendulum. I heard a few more comments from my friends as I left the ground, mostly along the lines of ‘Good luck!’, although it was Lee who wrapped it all up.

“DON’T break a leg, Enfys!”

Up, relatively easy ground for me by that stage of my climbing, then the start of that long, long sideways shuffle on the ‘arches’, actually mere ripples. Rainbow on a rainbow…

At our HQ the boss turned away, looking a little out of sorts, and I busied myself getting into boots and my other helmet, and in short order we were climbing into the familiar belly of the Sea King, two police officers boarding alongside us. We made quite a leisurely take-off, heading straight up towards the highest part of the Carneddau, before cutting through the pass above Llugwy, our destination of Foel Grach becoming apparent. I was poised to leap out on landing, but the winchman waved ‘no’ at me, and the aircraft settled instead on a reasonably level patch north of the summit rocks. I sat with my crew as the Doc stepped down, and only then did I recognise the lonely figure sitting by herself outside the little shelter, head thrown back as if she were staring into the sun. I could see five other people on the last stretch of the path from Llewelyn, more behind them, but the woman sitting by the shelter was oblivious, staring into the sky.

We settled onto the little area of flatness north of her, and Doc stepped out, together with one of the coppers. I couldn’t help thinking of that night, so long ago and yet so recent, where two of their colleagues had knocked at our door.

Doc trudged up to the shelter, squatting down by the woman, whose hands were making familiar gestures as she spoke, signs saying all too clearly, ‘Does anything really matter now?’, and of course I knew exactly who was lying there, waiting for our medic, and what exactly Dad had been hearing over the phone as I had left the bunkhouse.

The approaching group reached the shelter, two women taking stoves inside for the obvious process of brewing up. As I sat waiting in the Sikorsky, all I could bring to mind was that example of futility: a sticking plaster on a sucking wound. Dead friend, cuppa.

One man sat down next to Debbie, pulling her into a cuddle, while another couple settled onto a piece of flat ground by the hut doorway, and it was clear from their movements that at least one was sobbing. Our leader was soft voiced.

“Yes, love. I think most of us knew her, or at least of her. Initial report said it happened in her sleep, so nothing nasty for us. Let’s just honour her now, best we can, and take her home”

I remembered Mike’s words, from what seemed an aeon ago, and I found myself smiling, oddly. We weren’t there to shit on anyone, quite the reverse, and I felt honoured myself to be there at the end of her days.

Those moves onto the Rainbow had been gripping, especially onto the ‘arches’ of the Rainbow itself, and shit that was a long run-out. I was trying to work out whether my rope back to the last runner would be more or less than the distance to the ground when I arrived at the crossing of ‘Poetry Pink’, where I had wimped slightly, taking the option of a high runner on that route, Dad murmuring reassurance as I did so. Dip for chalk and shake my arms out. Keep your heels down, woman. The stance…

Good god, how far was that bolt? I remembered Mike’s description of the ‘udge’, and he was right. I have no idea of how exactly I made that move, but I had got the bolt clipped, and then set about tying on properly, and surreptitiously trying to stop my hands shaking. Dad was no quicker than me across the Rainbow, for he had faced just as big a swing as I had, but eventually he was with me, grinning.

“Alleged quote from The Villain, love. ‘By god, this is a gripping place’. Stance on Cemetery Gates”

He had barked out a laugh, under which I was surprised to pick up on his own nervousness, but I had no idea whether for himself, me or both of us. Off for the final bit, Hiatt. As I had moved, Dad said “I suspect Whillans’ real comment might have been a bit ruder”

The Rainbow was disappearing then, and once again I have no idea how I clipped the next bolt, but I did, and it was up, and across, and finally, finally, “ON BELAY!”.

Steph and the rest of Debbie’s friends were milling around, a little eye of calm where she sat with her husband, Doc rising to make his way back to our aircraft. He was very quiet for a moment, then smiled, incredibly gentle in his next words.

“Natural causes, people. They were cuddled together in the night, but when her friend woke the casualty wasn’t just unresponsive but actually cold. Been dead most of the night, in my professional etc. Said it to Mrs Prosser, what a way to leave this world. Peacefully, in a place of beauty, with someone who loves you. Sorry—don’t normally crack like this. Anyone got a tissue?”

A couple of us hugged him, and then, at his nod, we unshipped the lightweight stretcher for Pat’s final journey. Steph was there with so many others I recognised, and I got smiles, nods, squeezes of my shoulder and forearm along with muttered words of gratitude, as we carried poor Pat’s body from the refuge and wrapped her for the flight to Ysbyty Gwynedd. I don’t think Debbie even knew I was there, she was so deep in her grief.

“One, two, three, LIFT!”

Over the broken ground to the chopper, and then we were away, two people comforting each other in the shelter doorway as I looked at my left hand, remembering Dad’s words as I started The Rainbow.

Love is real. It has force; it changes the world. The woman flying with us had been loved, and the evidence was still on that mountain. Mam had loved my father so much she had left him rather than lose him. Mike had found two women to love, and from both of them had come Ish, and the world changed for the better.

Dad had smiled as he reminded me of necessity, and how temporary it could be.

“You need to pop your wedding ring off for this, love. Don’t lose it, though”

“Think I’d do that?”

A big grin.

“Would it change anything if you did?”

A massive rush of euphoria, just when I needed it, along with utter certainty.

“Nope! Nothing at all. Climbing!”