‘No, that’s fine, thank you.’ The three of us stand there in awkward silence, staring at the ground. I clasp my hands in front of me and close my eyes momentarily as if I might be praying, but really I am thinking about how wet my feet are, how cold my hands are, and wondering how long I have to stand here before we can get back into the nice warm car.

I open my eyes and look at Didier. I wonder if he has been having the same thoughts. It is absolutely freezing out here.

‘Do you have any questions?’ he asks, gently. ‘There is no rush, but we can take you to the lift whenever you are ready.’

‘No questions. I appreciate you bringing me here, thank you.’

We trudge back to the car, and Didier starts the engine.

I’m already colder than I ever remember being in my life, so am dreading the next part of my death tour, which I am fully expecting to be a chairlift. I can’t actually think of anything I would like to do less than take this lift again, but it seems churlish and even borderline disrespectful to say so. However, I am thankful for small mercies when I see that what I remember as a rickety old chairlift has now been replaced by a state-of-the-art bubble.

‘Ah. Was this a chairlift … when I was here?’ I ask. ‘Or have I misremembered? As I was telling Matt earlier, my memory of that day isn’t so good.’

‘It would have been a chairlift. This is one of our newest lifts – it’s one of the fastest in the region, in fact. Every hour, it can transport up to …’ Didier falls silent, perhaps realizing that this isn’t the moment to be showing off about the speed of their new lift.

‘It was very cold on the lift. And windy. I remember that,’ I say.

‘I believe so. Having read some of the reports, I think it was so windy they closed the lifts shortly after your … the accident.’

There is another awkward silence.

‘Are you happy to go up?’ Didier asks. ‘Perhaps we can get out at the top, if you would like, or we can carry on round in the gondola and come straight back down. It’s up to you.’

I don’t want to go up at all – what’s the point? But I don’t feel I can tell him that, so I say: ‘Yes, let’s go up. Thank you.’