Nora had been leading hiking groups for six years, but she had never lost sight of a summit marker this fast. One minute the ridge was clear; the next, cloud rolled in from the west and swallowed everything past ten meters.
诺拉带领徒步团已经六年了，可她从来没有这么快就看不见山顶标志物过。上一分钟，山脊还一清二楚；下一分钟，云就从西边涌了过来，把十米以外的一切都吞没了。
"Stop where you are," she called back to Jonah and Marcus. "Nobody moves until we can see the cairns again."
“就地停下，”她向后面的乔纳和马库斯喊道，“在我们重新看到石堆之前，谁也不许动。”
They had been climbing since dawn, aiming for a summit that was, according to the forecast, supposed to stay clear until early afternoon. The forecast had been wrong before, but never by this much.
他们天一亮就开始爬，目标是一座山顶，按天气预报的说法，那里应该会一直晴朗到下午早些时候。预报以前也出过错，但从没错得这么离谱。
Jonah checked his watch. "If we turn back now, we lose the summit. We've done the hard part already."
乔纳看了看手表。“要是现在折返，我们就登不上山顶了。最难的部分我们已经走完了。”
"If we kept going in this, we could walk straight off the north face and never know it," Nora said. "That ridge narrows to under a meter in places. I'm not risking that for a summit photo."
“要是在这种天气里继续走，我们可能会一脚直接踏下北面的悬崖，却毫无察觉，”诺拉说，“那条山脊有些地方窄到不足一米。我不会为了一张登顶照片去冒那个险。”
Marcus, who had been quiet, finally spoke. "My uncle was caught in weather like this once. He said the worst part wasn't the cold — it was that everyone kept insisting they were nearly there."
一直没出声的马库斯终于开口了。“我叔叔有一次就遇上过这样的天气。他说最糟的不是冷——而是每个人都一直坚持说，我们快到了。”
Nora pulled out her map and compass, since her phone had lost signal an hour earlier. She had marked their position at the last clear viewpoint, and she trusted that mark more than her memory of the trail.
诺拉拿出地图和指南针，因为她的手机一个小时前就没信号了。她在上一个视野清晰的观景点标记了他们的位置，而且她更相信这个标记，而不是自己对山路的记忆。
"We're four hundred meters below the summit," she said. "We're going down the way we came, roped together, twenty minutes at a time. Anyone who can't see the person ahead calls out immediately."
“我们在山顶下方四百米，”她说，“我们沿着来时的路往下走，用绳子连在一起，每次走二十分钟。谁看不到前面的人，要立刻喊出声。”
Jonah looked disappointed, but he didn't argue. Being roped to two people he'd trust with his life felt more urgent than any view.
乔纳看上去很失望，但没有争辩。与两个他愿意托付性命的人拴在一根绳子上，比任何风景都更要紧。
The descent took almost two hours, longer than the climb itself. Twice they lost the cairns and had to backtrack, feeling for the trail with their boots. By the time the cloud thinned and the valley reappeared below them, all three were soaked and shaking.
下山花了将近两个小时，比上山本身还久。有两次他们丢了石堆的方向，不得不原路折回，用靴子探着找路。等到云层变薄，山谷在他们脚下重新出现的时候，三个人全都浑身湿透，抖个不停。
"We were told this trail was easy in September," Marcus said, managing a laugh.
“有人跟我们说，这条路九月份很好走，”马库斯说，勉强挤出一个笑。
"Trails don't care what they were told," Nora answered. "I should have turned us back the second that cloud rolled in. We'll try the summit again tomorrow, if the forecast holds. Today we just needed to get down."
“路可不管别人跟它说过什么，”诺拉回答，“云一涌过来的那一秒，我就该带大家掉头。如果天气预报没错的话，我们明天再试一次登顶。今天，我们只需要平安下山。”
