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�...[..]...Bottomless, I thought idly. No. They’re never bottomless. I wonder how deep I will go? To the bottom...to the water at the bottom? God ! I hope not!....
...The stars went out, and I fell. Like something come alive, the rope lashed violently against my face and I fell silently, endlessly into nothingness, as if dreaming of falling. I fell fast, faster than I thought, and my stomach protested at the swooping speed of it. I swept down, and from far above I saw myself falling and felt nothing. No thoughts, and all fears gone away. So this is it!
..Starlight and the moon glimmering through my entry hole in the roof above gave enough light for me to see the abysses on either side ....I could see grey-shadowed ice walls and the stark blackness of the drops, too deep for the light to penetrate...
I saw the rope flick down, and my hopes sank. I drew the slack rope to me, and stared at the frayed end. Cut! I couldn’t take my eyes from it. White and pink nylon filaments sprayed out from the end. I suppose I had known all long...[..]..I’ll die here after all that. Why bother trying?
I turned off the torch and sobbed quietly in the dark, feeling overwhelmed. I cried in bursts, and between them listen to the childlike sounds fade beneath me, then cried again...[..]... All that sobbing and shouting had been too much. Acceptance seemed better....[..]..I though carefully of the end. It wasn’t how I had ever imagined it. It seemed pretty sordid. I hadn’t expected a blaze of glory when it came, nor had I thought it would be like this slow pathetic fade into nothing. I didn’t want it to be like that.
[..]...Looking at the ice bridge, I felt disturbed at the memory of my time spent on. It was hard to believe how desperate I had been in the night and while abseiling now that I was reaching for the sun. That was the hardest thing I had ever done, and thinking about it I felt a surge of confidence build in me. There was still a lot to fight for....
[..]...The voice said I would lose my way, said I would never get through the crevasses without the prints, and told me to hurry on, but what I was really frightened of was losing a sign of life in the empty bowl of mountains surrounding me...�