Adam's climb had become a drawn-out trial of endurance. The first hundred meters had only taken him a few minutes to scale, but the rest… It had already been two days since then!
The cliff face was jagged and cold, offering only the smallest ledges for his fingers to grip. Each upward pull strained his arms, and several times his footing had slipped, sending his body falling downward before he caught another hold at the last possible moment.
The wind battered him constantly, threatening to peel him off the stone, and every fall scraped his skin raw. The cold only made it worse. His fingers had long since grown numb, his joints had stiffened, and each movement felt slower than the last.
Frost clung to the rock, making handholds slick, and his breath turned shallow from the thin air. At one point, his arm nearly gave out entirely, and he had to press himself flat against the surface just to steady his shaking limbs.
