Mountaineers and climbers, particularly the free-solo variety, are humanity’s most fascinating maniacs: single-minded, daring souls who throw themselves into profoundly non-compulsory life-endangering feats. It’s onerous to not be compelled, and appalled, by somebody like Alex Honnold. Even with ropes, a single fallacious transfer can imply dying in mountaineering, a mad exercise that places you on the full mercy of nature. You can’t assist however marvel what sort of particular person willingly chooses this: what sort of particular person seems to be at a towering cliff face, or a wall of wind-whipped ice, and thinks, I guess I can rise up there.
Aava, Cairn’s protagonist, is that sort of particular person: a champion climber, a lady who has conquered summit after summit, however for some cause can’t stroll away. Earlier than her stands Mount Kami, an ice-tipped, Himalayan-style peak that has by no means earlier than been climbed. Kami was as soon as house to a tribe of individuals, whose remnants you discover as you pull your self up every part of the mountain, however now you might be very a lot alone. Controlling Aava’s limbs, you progress her palms and toes in the direction of imperfections within the rock, jamming her fingers into cracks and her toes on to tiny ledges. You shortly study to learn the mountain, as Aava would.
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