White Out Hut

Copyright Oggbashan May 2021

The author asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.

This is a work of fiction. The events described here are imaginary; the settings and characters are fictitious and are not intended to represent specific places or living persons.

+++

"Rory? If I haven't rung you by five-thirty tomorrow, please tell the mountain rescue people."

I spread out my large scale map and showed Rory where I would park my car and the route I intended to take across the moors weather permitting.

"OK, John, will do, but you shouldn't need rescuing, surely?"

"No. I shouldn't. I'm experienced, properly equipped, and as you know I sometimes volunteer with the mountain rescue people. But I could always have an accident, sprain an ankle, or break a leg. That's unlikely but the call is just a precaution."

"OK, John. I'll call if..."

Last night the weather forecast had been for a bright, sunny February Saturday, with the possibility of a light shower or so after dark, but a storm was approaching for Sunday.

I wanted to get out and do some exercise that I had been missing since I was bruised by falling off my bicycle in mid-December. I packed my rucksack with more than the essentials but didn't include my tent. It would be too heavy for my first real outing since my injury.

I listened carefully to the weather forecast over breakfast. It had been the same.

I set out for a short walk on the North York Moors, having told my friend that I should be back before dark and I would ring him when I was off the moors and back at my car.

I was pleasantly surprised that I could walk so well and I went further than I had originally intended, passing through a Forestry Commission plantation of pinewoods before reaching a high point from where I had good views in the bright sunshine. As I started back down through the forest, later perhaps than I should have done, the sun was shining through the trees.

As I emerged from the trees on to the maintenance track that ran around the forests, I could see heavy clouds cresting the uplands on the other side of the valley. They were threatening more than the light shower that the forecast had suggested. Although the track seemed inviting, I knew it ran for miles, over a pass and only reached civilisation about ten miles away. My route back to the car was downhill on ill-defined paths with some rocky scrambles. I noticed something else that worried me more. About four miles away was the village of my destination. Despite the gathering gloom there were no lights visible. Were they experiencing a power cut?

I got out my mobile phone. No signal. I got out my back-up phone, a basic one with two sims on different networks. There was no signal on either. What should I do?

If I continued, the approaching storm would catch me long before I reached my car and that could be dangerous. If I retreated into the trees, there could be a heavy snowfall that could bring down branches, I had to find shelter and wait until the storm had passed, but I had no tent.

On the other side of the track there were the remains of a dry stone wall with a corner standing. If I used my large tarpaulin, together with the standing walls I would have some shelter from any snow. I took my rucksack and dumped it before returning to the edge of the forest and dragging several cut-off branches that had been piled for later collection.

Hurriedly I trimmed the branches to make poles for a roof after building a third wall and part of a fourth wall from the loose stones scattered around the standing parts. My walls weren't as well built as the original, but twice as thick. I put the poles across to make a roof that would support my tarpaulin. If that had been unsupported, the weight of any snow accumulation could have torn it. It was pleased that I had a brand-new and very large tarpaulin.

The snow was beginning to fall when I finished the basic structure. I had a shelter about fourteen feet by twelve feet and seven feet high. My bright blue tarpaulin covered the whole, held down by more stones on top of the walls and falling to the ground where I had left an entrance, away from the wind which was increasing. When I had bought the tarpaulin I thought it was stupidly large. The store only had two sizes in stock - one of two metres by one and a half metres, too small, and an enormous one at six metres square. But for its size it was strong but light. Now I was grateful for it.

As the wind increased my tarpaulin was flapping noisily. I took my ball of nylon cord and went outside, tying the eyelets as securely as I could. Even as I worked, the side against the wind was white, covered with snow.

Inside, I lit my small paraffin-fuelled hurricane lamp. I moved all the loose stones on the ground to make a shelf across the wall facing the wind, before I spread my smaller groundsheet to cover the grassed floor.

I emptied my rucksack and surveyed what I had. I was pleased that I had made myself a very sound shelter and I was well equipped. I had a small Primus stove and ample supplies of paraffin. I had food, mainly dried packets but acceptable. The only thing I might be short of was water. I had half a litre in a bottle and no more, but I could melt snow.

But once the snow covered my shelter I would be invisible. If I had a fire? I went outside and dragged some more branches across the track. I built a stone windbreak and started a fire with the offcuts from trimming the roof poles. It burned well and I added heavier logs to keep it burning. I went back into my shelter and ate a cold tin of baked beans. I filled the empty tin with snow and put it close to the fire.

I spread out my survival bag, my heavyweight double sleeping bag, and my all-season single sleeping bag. Even if I were to be stuck here for two or three days I would be sheltered, reasonably warm, able to feed myself and safe.

I checked my phones again. Still no signals on any network. How would Rory respond? Would he ring mountain rescue as soon as I had not contacted him, or would he assume, because there was no mobile signal, that I was on my way but couldn't ring him?

I lit my primus stove and made myself some instant coffee with melted snow. I was pleased with myself. Even if no one found me, or maybe wasn't even looking, I could survive in comfort. If I had brought my tent, I wouldn't be as secure as I was now in my makeshift hut. I had now filled an empty one litre water bottle with more melted snow.

I strung a line across one edge of the shelter and turned back the groundsheet. I hung my outer coat to drip snow onto the exposed grass.

I put out the hurricane lamp and got into a sleeping bag to settle down. The noise of the wind outside was still loud but being gradually muffled as layers of snow drifted up on the windward side. When I came back in from fixing the cord to the tarpaulin the snow had been about a foot deep against the exposed wall. Now? It might be five feet or more and nearly to the top. My only worry might be the weight on the top but I thought my poles would hold the weight because most snow would just be blown over the roof and down beyond.

I looked at my watch. Normally, because I had my mobile phones with me I hadn't bothered with a watch, but for some reason I had put it on this morning. I was pleased that I had. It was half-past six, after dark and dawn would be late tomorrow.

About eight o'clock I lit the hurricane lamp before I put on my outdoor clothing and went outside to add fuel to the fire. That would be the only way people might find me now that my shelter was just a white mound. The wind was still blowing hard and the snow was drifting. In places it was eight feet deep and getting deeper. I wouldn't be able to see the rocky parts of the path I needed to take. But I could stay where I was. I wouldn't be a priority for mountain rescue. They would assume, correctly, that I had found shelter. It was other people who might have been caught out by the storm coming a day early that would need their help first.

At the time, I didn't know it, but the mountain rescue teams had problems of their own. The storm had brought down some telegraph poles and cut their phone lines, and until a police motorcyclist brought them a police radio, they had no way of knowing who needed help. The calls to the mountain rescue service had been diverted to the Police call centre and messages were being passed by the police radio system. Apparently, calls from friends had shown that twenty people, including me, had failed to return from walking on the moors. The locations of several were very vague and in the conditions, finding them could be very challenging.

I built up my fire until the flames were four feet high. I added some large logs that should keep the fire alight until the morning. The snow drift against the wind break was melting. I wondered just how far my fire might be visible in the conditions. Twenty yards, thirty yards? Certainly not far.

I was just about to go back in my shelter when I heard someone shouting from the edge of the forest. I shouted back.

"Come towards the fire!"

Two snow spattered shapes emerged. I pointed towards my shelter and they followed me inside. When they were inside I could see they were two women, reasonably dressed for the bad weather but obviously cold and tired. As they looked around inside the shelter I lit the Primus stove.

"Coffee?" I asked.

"Yes, please, but this place is amazing. It couldn't have been better if it was a hut. Was it here?"

"No. I made it a few hours ago, just as the snow started. I am pleased with it. It should keep us safe until the storm goes. I am John. You are?"

"A few minutes ago we weren't sure who we were because we were so cold. Now? We are sisters. I'm Anne, she's Mary."

"OK. How come you were caught out?"

"We were coming back through the forest when It suddenly got dark and we lost the path. We tried to use our compasses..."

"But they didn't work. They wouldn't. There are ironstone outcrops among the trees."

"We wondered why. But we had been wandering around for hours until we found the track at the edge and saw your fire."

"How are you equipped?"

"We thought we were OK. We have an emergency shelter tent but while that would do for rain or a moderate wind, it would be useless in the strong wind and blizzard we have now. We have a small solid fuel cooker but that wouldn't last long and we probably couldn't light it in these conditions. We have winter sleeping bags, food and water but we are so much better in here."

They hung their snow covered coats on my line before we made an evening meal on my small Primus stove. When we had eaten, I extinguished the Primus stove and hurricane lamp. I had turned an edge of the groundsheet against the exposed tarpaulin doorway and held it in place with stones. Although that had reduced the draughts and the snow piling up outside was insulating outside, there was still a draught taking away the paraffin fumes. We got into our sleeping bags and all three of us were inside my double sleeping bag, very squashed together but warm.

I felt frustrated. I had two very attractive women pressed up against my sides but since all three of us were in sleeping bags I couldn't get at them. But we were warm.

Just before dawn I had to get up to dress to go outside to piss. I could see from their coats they they had done the same sometime during the night. As I eased myself back into my sleeping bag, Anne stirred. Her face appeared in the opening of my sleeping bag's hood before she kissed me very deliberately and passionately. When the kiss ended I asked: "Why?"

"Just because, John. Your shelter has protected us and I'm grateful."

I might have answered but Mary had decided that kissing John was a good idea. I was out of breath when Anne started kissing me again. While she was, Anne moved up. As soon as Mary's kiss ended my face was held against Anne's T-shirt covered cleavage. I was enjoying the softness and her perfume.

"I'd like to do more to say thank you," Anne said.

"So would I," Mary interrupted.

"But we'd get cold. Later, perhaps," Anne finished.

We got up, dressed and made breakfast for all three of us. Afterwards I put on my outdoor clothing and re-fuelled the fire, retrieving four cans of melted snow. It was still snowing hard but the wind, although still strong, was nothing like last night's gale.

As I came back in I had a thought. I picked up my basic mobile phone. On one sim it had a very weak signal, but a medium one on the other. I rang Mountain Rescue.

"Hello, John. Where are you?"

I gave them my GPS coordinates and told them I had a signal fire outside.

"No need, John. We have your position within a couple of metres. How are you?"

I told them I was warm, dry, had supplies for a couple of days and rescuing me wasn't urgent. I also told them I had Anne and Mary with me.

"Surnames?"

"I don't know. Hang on. I'll ask."

"Reynolds." Mary told me.

"Thank you, John. You three are the last reported not to have returned. The mobile signal has been working for a couple of hours. We had twelve people still missing. Four have been already recovered and are now on their way to hospital to be treated for hypothermia. Except for a couple, about half a mile from you, we should get the others off the moors within the next half an hour."

"Can we help with the two?"

"No, John. They are in a tent at the edge of the forest but the woman has a badly sprained ankle. Four of our team are about two hundred yards from them with a stretcher. But they couldn't carry the stretcher all the way to a road so two LandRovers are coming along the forest track. The LandRovers will take some time because they will have to dig their way through snowdrifts. Could the rescue team come to you?"

"Of course. We can provide shelter, hot drinks and food."

"Thank you. Not just the couple, but our rescue team might appreciate that."

"OK. We'll be ready for them."

I rang Rory and told him that I was in shelter and that the mountain rescue team would be with me shortly.

"Are you OK, John?"

"Yes, thank you, Rory. I am well protected, warm, with plenty of food and I have two attractive young ladies with me."

"Who are grateful? You lucky dog, John."

"See you this evening or tomorrow Rory. Thank you. Bye."

Forty minutes later the rescue team arrived with the stretcher. The woman, Jane, was in obvious pain but felt better after some hot soup. We made coffee for all of them. Jane's husband, Alan, shook my hand and thanked me for providing the shelter and coffee. Jane asked me to bend down and kiss me. Her arms wrapped around my head and she kissed me hard. Anne and Mary objected.

"Hands off, Jane! He's ours!" Anne said.

"Ours?" Jane queried.

"Yes, Jane, ours," Mary replied.

"The two of you?"

"Probably. He saved us too. We want him."

"Do I have any say?" I asked plaintively.

"No." Mary and Anne chorused as Jane laughed at me.

The team leader commented that my shelter was amazing, warm, dry and spacious. He took photos inside and out.

"John? Do you need to dismantle all this?" The leader asked.

"Perhaps not. It would be an effort. Why?"

"It is in a useful location right by the track. It could be an emergency site, not just for those who get caught out, but for the rescue teams. This is on National Trust land. The track and forest are Forestry Commission. We'll ask the National Trust if we can make this into a permanent refuge hut and advanced base for mountain rescue. It is amazing for a few hour's' work but could be better."

"But it was only a temporary expedient."

"Maybe. We could improve it, but it is useful as it is. We've got to wait about two hours for the LandRovers to arrive and being warm and sheltered is good for all of us."

I thought. I could replace the tarpaulin easily, and a smaller one would be better. I could leave my hurricane lamp and paraffin for it. I could also leave my water bottles but I would like my Primus. It was expensive because it was so small and compact. I, Anne and Mary emptied out all our supplies of food and left them. They could be easily replaced. I also left the empty tins I had been using to melt snow.

It was three hours before the LandRovers arrived and we made coffee for those with them. They shovelled snow over my fire to put it out. They unloaded some supplies and equipment from the LandRovers so that my shelter was better equipped if someone else needed it.

It was still snowing and it took another two hours to get back to my car. Anne and Mary had come by bus, but on a Sunday, the next bus wasn't due for another two hours so I offered to run them home. Their flat was about two miles from my house.

As they got out, Anne said:

"John? Would you join us for the evening meal, please? We want to say thank you properly."

"OK. But I need to go home, shave, shower and change."

"About half past seven?"

"Yes, Anne."

"And bring your overnight things, please," Mary said. "When we want to say thanks, we mean properly..."

"You're sure?"

"Yes!" they chorused.

As I drove home the snow was still falling but not as hard as it had been on the moors. Once I was home I texted my boss. I was owed a few hours' time for working late on a recent project. He told me to take the whole of Monday off even if that was an hour more than I was owed.

When I returned to the women's flat, bearing a bottle of wine, I was surprised that Anne, who answered the door, was in a nightdress and quilted dressing gown. So was Mary but both had aprons around their waists. As I looked at them Anne said:

"After the meal we want to say 'thank you' properly so we are already prepared. Do you object, John?"

"No. But won't your boyfriends object?"

"No boyfriends at present, John. They didn't like trying to accommodate our working patterns."

"Ok. So what do you do?"

"We are agency nurses, qualified for ER and operations. We have been working very hard for the past year so we could buy this flat. After the deposit and mortgage we were broke so we had been taking every shift offered, often on Friday and Saturday nights at the three local hospitals. This weekend we had an unexpected break so we decided to go walking and met you, John."

"But we expect to be on duty from 1 o'clock tomorrow afternoon," Mary added.

"And I'm not needed until Tuesday," I replied.

"What do you do, John?" Anne asked.

"I work for a local insurance broker, five days out of six and sometimes help my father who is a builder. Like you, I have been working too long and hard over the last few months, mainly because one of our staff is on maternity leave and her husband has just finished two weeks off to help with their new baby. He's back tomorrow, and she will be back in three months' time when her parents take over baby-minding."

We were sitting in their living room in front of a bright open fire but they were cold. I wasn't surprised. The sash windows rattled and one pane had been roughly replaced with a piece of plywood held in by sellotape.

Snow was penetrating around the plywood and was in small heap on the windowsill.

"Your windows are in a state," I said.

"We know," Anne said. "Five cords are broken and we have had to nail two windows shut. When we have money we intend to ask for quotations."

"I could probably fix them for you," I said cautiously. "But why are they so bad?"

"We could only buy this flat because it was in such a state," Anne said. "It had been lived in by an old couple who hadn't done any maintenance for forty years..."

"I can see. But..."

"But?" Mary asked.

"The sash windows are easy, particularly if I have some one else to help. I'll give my father a ring. He has the materials and if he has some time tomorrow, your windows could be fixed in an hour.