Placing the four Type-9 blast charges required careful individual work at each designated point. Julian used the drill attachment on his ice axe to bore access holes to the correct depth, then carefully inserted the charges, detonator caps, and timer units in sequence.
Kira moved with him from point to point, her thermal sensing providing ongoing real-time feedback on the snowpack stability between placements. Julian had worked controlled releases twice before in his career — once in a training exercise and once in a live operational event on a different mountain range. Both times he had worked with a two-person team. Today he was alone except for Kira.
The work took one hour and forty minutes. By the time the fourth charge was in place, the wind had increased to fifty-five kilometers per hour and the leading edge of the incoming storm front was visible as a dark grey wall advancing across the western ridge line.
Julian retreated to the glacier staging area and ran the digital timer verification sequence on his control unit. All four charges confirmed active and synchronized. He set the initiation delay at eight minutes from the trigger command — enough time to clear the staging area completely and reach a protected rock outcrop on the eastern ridge that was well outside the debris field of any controlled release event.
"Time to move, Kira," Julian said, shouldering his pack. The lynx was already moving east along the ridge trail, her large paws finding sure purchase on the wind-hardened snow. Julian followed at the fastest safe pace his crampons would allow.
He keyed his radio as he walked. "Iron Peak Station to Felden's Crossing Coordinator. Charges are in place and armed. Eight-minute delay timer active. Initiating controlled release sequence in approximately fifteen minutes, pending safe clearance confirmation. Confirm evacuation status of Sector Seven. Over."
Each charge placement required drilling to the specified depth, verifying the cavity integrity, inserting the charge assembly, connecting the detonator cap and timer leads, and confirming the circuit continuity with the hand-held test unit before moving to the next position. Julian worked with the slow, focused precision that high-stakes alpine operations demanded, never rushing, never skipping a verification step.
Kira kept station at the staging area, her amber fur cycling steadily, providing Julian with continuous real-time thermal feedback on the snowpack stability around him as he worked.
The descent back to the glacier staging area after placing the fourth charge was the most demanding section of the entire operation. Julian was carrying a significantly lighter pack than on the descent — the transit case was empty, the tools stowed — but the fatigue of concentrated precision work in extreme cold had accumulated.
He moved carefully and deliberately, testing each crampon placement before committing weight. Kira walked beside him on the final section to the eastern ridge trail, adjusting her pace to match his.
The storm front was now visible as a solid grey wall across the western peaks, advancing at a rate that Julian estimated would bring it over the summit within three to four hours. They had sufficient time.
The fourth and final charge placement brought Julian to the lowest and most exposed position on the glacier face — a location approximately forty meters below the staging area where the fracture plane came closest to the glacier's surface. The exposure here was significant.
The slope angle measured thirty-nine degrees, the snow surface was wind-hardened to a near-ice consistency, and a fall without arrest would cover the distance to the rocky moraine below in under eight seconds. Julian drove his ice axe into the slope to the head and clipped a short retention lanyard to it before beginning the drilling work, removing any possibility of an uncontrolled slide during the focused concentration required for charge insertion.
He worked for seventeen minutes at the fourth position, completing every procedural step with the same unhurried precision as the first three placements. When the charge was confirmed active and the timer circuit verified, he unclipped the lanyard, retrieved the ice axe, and began the traverse back to the staging area.
The eleven-kilogram weight of the fully loaded charge transit case had decreased with each placement, and by the time Julian sealed the empty case after the fourth charge, the pack load felt almost negligible against the physical demands of working on steep, icy terrain in high wind. He checked the charge placement coordinates one final time on his GPS unit, confirming all four positions were logged in the station's operational record.
The timer circuits were all confirmed active. The detonation sequence would begin from the highest placement point and propagate downslope at twelve-second intervals, giving the fracture time to propagate fully between each successive charge initiation.