In early twilight particulate ice sweeps across the hillside. Dark-edged scree penetrates a ubiquitous blanket of snow, staining the aggressive slope which can only be stamped down with difficulty. At its base the talus recedes in a thin gulley. Beyond, a level snow field with intermittent thickets extends into a darkening blue drop, past, hardly discerned glacier dunes. Three figures emerge atop the stained slope. The first descends in haste, sliding urgently to churn loose rock underfoot, passing through the gulley in several high strides. The others pick downward in short, deliberate placements. They rise over the gulley’s crest as the wind stiffens to find the first has vanished ahead into the plain. They amble forward until the nearest thickets form a crescent before them where one drops to their knees, hands shaking, to withdraw a frozen flower. Its petals are shrunken brown. Then a skinny stem is clutched between bit fingers. It is pulled into the palm where purple curls to mangle so broken strands fall and the stem is twisted. The other observes from the edge of the crescent but turns and departs into the plain.