The thought of my board in her hands makes me shudder. It’s my baby. But I can’t think of a reason to refuse, so we swap and I rub snow from the nose of hers to see the spec. A Domina Spin 154. Three centimeters shorter than I usually ride. Which makes sense because she’s lighter than me. I make a note to lean back more in the powder.

Side by side we speed down, carving out huge turns that spray powder into the air. A snowboard cuts through this kind of snow like a knife through softened butter, but the pleasure is marred by the sight of my board under her feet.

Snow flies into my face as we slap palms at the bottom. I’m relieved to get my board back. We head up the tow lift again.

“Follow me!” she shouts at the top.

I chase her down the other side of the mountain, where I haven’t been yet. Powder flies up from her turns, coating my lips and cheeks. We streak downward, jumping and spinning off wind lips. I take a couple of bad wipeouts, but it doesn’t hurt nearly as much as falling on the ice of the half-pipe, and I feel invincible.

On the hillside below the pipe later, I spot a cliff and line myself up to jump it. Saskia blasts off after me, landing farther down the slope. Damn.

“Let’s do that again,” I say.

Rather than riding all the way down to the lift, I whip my board off and hike back up. Saskia puffs uphill behind me. Gasping for breath, I strap my board on again. This time I straight-line to make sure I go farther than she did. She jumps after me, and goes farther still. I remove my board to try again.

We hike higher and higher. This is getting dangerous. I’m already going bigger than I’ve ever gone.

After another bone-jolting impact, Saskia lands beside me, a fraction farther down the slope.

“Hey!” shouts a voice. Curtis waves from the plateau above. “What are you doing down there? The pipe’s epic today.”

Saskia and I look at each other, sweaty and breathless.

“Shall we go?” she says.

My annoyance at Curtis’s interruption is tinged with relief. If it weren’t for him, I can’t say how far we would have gone.

If either of us would have ever stopped.

CHAPTER 17

PRESENT DAY

I lie shivering in my narrow bunk. The sheets feel cold and icy. I have two duvets over me but it’s not enough. I need another. There was a whole stack of them in the laundry cupboard, but I don’t want to go out there to get one.