Ranger

Everyone gave each other space.

And then at 3.47 in the afternoon, the storm hit.

The wind shifted first.

I was outside splitting kindling when the temperature dropped roughly 10 degrees in under a minute.

The sky had been an even high gray all morning.

Now it was much darker, a flat heavy slate.

I looked west and saw a dense front of snow pushing up the valley at a speed I had seen maybe twice in my career.

I called the others inside.

I got the door bolted at 3.51.

By 4 in the afternoon, the wind against the west wall of the shelter was sustained at something I estimated later at 50 miles an hour, with gusts higher.

By 4.30, I couldn't see the tree line 30 feet from the door.

The forecast had been wrong by 11 hours.

We were at the start of a storm that had been projected to arrive the next morning, and it was going to be on us through the night.

I tried the radio at 4.15, 4.30, and every 15 minutes after that.

The emergency band was static.

The hand crank worked.

The battery was charged.

The signal was not reaching dispatch through that much weather at that much altitude.

It happens.

It's not unheard of at altitude in a bad storm.