His rescuers are now playing against the clock. Parmenter doesn t wait around to do the math. She claws up the last 500 feet of the mountain an inch at a time. It s more like crawling than climbing. Her arms and legs move with underwater slowness.
Lungs pump in empty air with frantic, futile, rib-bursting gulps.
Every willful step leaves her as winded as a sprint. Parmenter has finally found her rhythm. Step, stand, suck in air. Slowly, she runs out of mountain. She steps alone onto the summit.