handed her camera to Luke, muttered instructions on how to use it and smiled her thanks when he returned it to her.
Dinner was another meal of hot soup followed by stew and cornbread. Rowena passed on the offer of pisco sours—the traditional Chilean spirit mixed with egg white, lemon juice and sugar—and stuck to a single glass of Merlot, not wanting to risk a hangover when they had a hard day’s walking ahead. Carly turned in early, and Rowena almost wished she’d chosen a bed in the refugio too—though when she left the bar for her tent, she was glad she hadn’t.
Despite the hardness of her bed and the coolness of the night air, it was worth sleeping in a tent. Tonight there were no clouds and no wind, and the night sky took her breath away. The stars were bright—much brighter than they ever were in Manchester, with all the city’s light pollution—and the sky looked like indigo velvet. It made her want to reach out and touch it…And then she heard a scream.
Human, or a bird?
Then she heard another scream, and this time it was unmistakable. ‘Help!’
She grabbed her torch and headed towards the sound.
She was the second person on the scene, behind Luke by about ten seconds.
‘It’s Stephen,’ the young woman by the edge of the lake sobbed.
One of the group who’d been drinking pisco sours, Rowena noticed.
‘He fell in. We were messing about. I didn’t know we were this close to the edge. He can swim, but…’
But he’d been drinking—and the water was very, very cold. Either factor would impair his ability to swim. Putting both into play meant he was likely to drown.
‘I thought he was messing about—you know, pretending he was in trouble.’ The young woman gulped. ‘But then I realised he really was in trouble.’
‘How long’s he been in?’ Luke asked.
‘A few minutes.’ She shook her head, clearly panicking, and when you were scared, Rowena knew, it was hard to judge how quickly time passed. ‘I don’t know.’
In waters that cold, with a low air temperature as well, just a couple of minutes could give Stephen hypothermia.
Luke’s mouth was set in a thin line. ‘I’ll give you the lecture later. Just stand back—I don’t want anyone else falling in. I’ll get him.’ He stripped off his jacket and then plunged into the lake.
Rowena put her arm round the young woman and guided her back from the edge. The rest of the group was silent. ‘You’re Melissa, aren’t you?’
‘Yes. I…We didn’t mean it. I didn’t know those drinks were so strong. They tasted…Well, it was a laugh. He just lost his footing.’
‘He can swim,’ one of the others put in.
‘Yes, but this is glacial water. It comes from an ice field,’ Rowena pointed out. ‘Look, can one of you run back to the refugio and get some blankets and towels? We need them now.’
‘I’ll go,’ one of them said, and immediately raced towards the refugio.
‘Why do you need blankets?’ another asked.
‘The air temperature is cold—his body’s not going to be able to cope with the shock of it on top of the cold water,’ Rowena said.
‘He’s not going to die, is he?’ Melissa wailed.
‘It’s likely that he’s going to have at least a mild case of hypothermia—’ the risk increased with every minute he was in the water ‘—so he’s in for a rough night.’
‘Hypothermia? Isn’t that what you get when you’re old, or if you’ve been on a mountain all night?’
‘It means your body’s core temperature is a couple of degrees lower than normal,’ Rowena explained. ‘It happens more quickly in cold water. As your body cools, your brain and nerves work more slowly and your muscles start to cramp. That means Stephen’s not going to be able to swim properly, and his heart might not beat properly either.’
‘So he’s going to be really ill?’
‘It depends on how fit he is and how cold the water is. And drinking alcohol increases the risk of developing hypothermia,’ Rowena added.
Melissa looked frightened enough. Rowena decided not to add that if Stephen’s temperature went too low, his heart rate would drop, he could slip into a coma, and he might even die. ‘I think in future it might be a good idea to decide to have a few drinks or to have a night-time stroll round the lake—not both.’
‘We never meant this to happen. We were just having a laugh, enjoying the stars and that. He slipped on the rocks and fell in,’ Melissa said, her voice shaky. ‘I thought he was messing about at first. You know what blokes are like.’
The blankets arrived at the same time that Luke emerged from the lake, supporting Stephen and half dragging him.
Luke nodded approval at the blankets and towels. ‘Quick thinking. We need to get him out of this wet stuff and dry him, and get him back to the refugio.’
‘You’re wet as well,’ Rowena pointed out as she helped Luke strip the wet clothing from the groggy man and blot the water from his body with towels.
‘I’m a doctor and I’m used to the climate.’
‘Don’t be so ridiculous. If you stay out here in wet clothes, you’ll develop hypothermia as well! We need the trek medical officer at peak fitness,’ Rowena snapped.
‘I’ll change when we get in,’ Luke said.
She didn’t bother arguing, simply helped him wrap Stephen in the blankets and supported him on the way back to the refugio. The young man was too cold and disorientated to talk to them—he simply accepted their help with mumbled thanks and stumbled along between them.
‘Shall I get him a hot drink?’ Melissa asked.
‘No, if you try to warm him up too quickly you could burn him,’ Rowena answered. ‘Where’s your medical kit, Luke?’
‘In the refugio. It’s safer there than in my tent.’
Stephen’s girlfriend clearly needed something to do to make her feel as if she was doing something to help. ‘Melissa, can you run ahead and get the kit? And have you got a room or were you sleeping in tents?’
‘I’ve got a room,’ she said.
‘Good. We’ll need it for him tonight,’ Rowena said.
‘I’ll get the stuff,’ Melissa said.
When they got to the refugio, Melissa was waiting with the medical kit.
‘Got an ear thermometer in there?’ Rowena asked.
Luke nodded. ‘Stephen, I’m just going to put this in your ear and take your temperature, OK?’ he asked. The young man nodded. ‘Thirty-three degrees.’
Low, but manageable, Rowena thought. So they wouldn’t need to call out the air ambulance. Yet.
‘That’s good. You’ve got mild hypothermia, Stephen, so we’ll be able to help you right here, with something called passive rewarming. That means we’ll wrap you in warm blankets to reduce the amount of heat your body’s losing to the air.’ Luke gave Melissa a tight smile. ‘Don’t look so scared. He should warm up again in three to four hours.’
‘We need to avoid afterdrop, so we’ll keep his arms and legs uncovered, but we’ll cover his head and neck,’ Rowena added quietly. Because the body’s extremities cooled faster than the torso, if they warmed his arms and legs, the colder blood in Stephen’s limbs would re-enter his circulation and make his hypothermia worse. Heat was lost more quickly from the head, so keeping Stephen’s head covered would help.
Luke’s