I have often heard people say, “Don’t climb mountains in the first snow.”
I often heard this kind of talk among my friends, but I thought it was because it would be slippery.
My friend also thought the same way as I did.
He was an inexperienced amateur who had only been climbing for about three years.
He was the type who did everything by himself. He was climbing a mountain alone at that time, but the first snow had begun to fall.
The accumulation was only a few centimeters, so he continued climbing as he had originally planned.
As he walked along, looking for the trail, he noticed footprints.
As he walked along, looking for a path, he noticed footprints. He was pleased, and he patted himself on the chest.
“I’m sure this is the way,” he said, and started walking again in good spirits. But there was something curious about the footprints.
I don’t think they were shoe prints, at least not hiking boots. They were obviously too thin and small.
We started to climb up the trail, following the footprints, and after three years of experience, we began to notice that the scenery around us was a little different.
The trail was more like an animal trail than a mountain trail, and the rocks were getting thicker and thicker, making it more difficult to walk.
He was also concerned about the eeriness of the footprints, so he decided to turn back.
It was getting quite dark, and he began to get impatient.
As he hurriedly descended the mountain, relying on his own footprints, he noticed something unusual.
Those thin footprints were increasing. When he was climbing, there was only one footprint, but now there were several.
At least three footprints are visible now. Moreover, upon closer inspection, they appeared to be the footprints of bare feet.
When I noticed this, a shiver ran down my spine and I was struck with fear. Something barefoot was following me.
At that moment, he remembered the words of an experienced mountaineer he knew
“Don’t climb on the first snow day. You see things you shouldn’t see.
Sometimes you can see things you normally can’t because of the snow, and that can be fatal.”
He was beginning to panic, it was getting dark, and he was sure he was lost.
He began to descend, following his footprints, but no matter how far he walked, he could not get back to the trail.
The sun was now completely gone and the footprints were no longer discernible.
Disappearance.
The word “lost.” popped into his head, and he decided to give up on the descent and camp out in the field.
Since we had not prepared for camping,the only things he could use were an aluminum foil-like thermal cover and matches.
He decided to camp under a large rock where he could shelter from the wind.
It was a mild night after a snowfall, so he was not worried about freezing to death, but he decided not to sleep just in case.
As I calmed down, the thought of the footprints occurred to me.
I wondered who those tracks belonged to. “It must be deer, rabbit, or wild boar…” He tried to distract himself.
He tried to cover his tracks by interpreting them as those of a small animal, but he was trying hard not to fall asleep.
But he dozed off and fell asleep.
He was awakened by a noise, the sound of something walking on the snow.
The sound was coming from behind a rock. He thought it was a small animal and yelled to get rid of it.
“Hey,!” He yelled, and the footprints fled into the distance. “I knew it was a wild boar…”
A few minutes later, I heard the footprints again, this time in the distance.
This time the footsteps were different.
It was not the footsteps of one person… He brought his friends. 。。。。Even he was scared.
“Hey! I yelled at him again.
The footsteps stopped, but after a while they started moving again.
I couldn’t help but think that they were human beings.
A few people are coming this way. He was struck with a fear like he had never felt before.
He sat down on, meditated, and started praying, although he wasn’t particularly religious.
He faintly remembered his grandfather and grandmother chanting the Nembutsu when he was a child.
He put his face in the thermal cover as well and chanted a messed up Buddhist chant while trying not to look outside.
The footsteps are getting closer and closer.
The footsteps continued throughout the night, as if they were circling around him.
He could not sleep at all and was chanting the Buddha in a half-crazed state.
The footsteps were becoming more and more distant, much to his relief. He could see the sun had risen.
The footsteps had completely disappeared, and he was horrified when he fearfully peeked out from the thermal cover and looked around.
There were dozens of footprints all around him, and they were barefoot, and he gazed at them in exhaustion.
Too terrified to think anything else, he started to pack up and began his descent.
After half an hour’s walk, the footprints disappeared halfway down the mountain, but after a short walk, he soon saw a sign for the trail and descended safely.
Weakened by the mental breakdown, he stopped climbing the mountain for the last time.
