It's A Man Thing.

OCR English GCSE Coursework It’s A Man Thing Alex Cook

The wind began to pick up and the temperature began to fall the thought crossed his mind to stop and take shelter until it died down. Bryn’s brain debated this issue but his ego finalised the decision, they broke over the edge of the overhang to see just another nearly identical one. The dog, Macduff, quite used to these types of expedition, found his own way up and around, he was after all a Scottish terrier and this kind of thing was in his blood.

Heidi thought back to her metropolitan penthouse, and thought what bliss a nice long soak in her Jacuzzi would be. She even decided she was going to drive out to see her parents when she got back, she hadn’t seen them in at least a couple of weeks. She was sharply snapped back to reality by a slip of her foot on the wet granite rock, the granite became as slippery as marble in these conditions. She again let her mind wander and was trying to get her head round why Bryn had ever wanted to go on such an expedition for this kit sponsorship. It wasn’t for the fun of it, because he was completely brain washed by competitiveness. It wasn’t for experience, he’d already been around the world twice on such expeditions and Snowdonia was simply in their back garden. Only 29 miles from Cardiff, and from the comfort of their newly re-decorated penthouse in the heart of the city. Perhaps it was the prize money or the kit sponsorship, but it was only a small amount of £5,000, not even a third of the price they paid for the left-hand drive Range Rover parked at the base of the mountain. He had bought this for them out of their joint account without even mentioning the fact that he wanted it and had sold her old Mercedes Benz to put money towards it. He didn’t want to get rid of his old Triumph TR7 to pay for it when he could just leave it in her garage for whenever he needed it.

She pulled herself up onto the ledge where Bryn was waiting; he looked down at her crawling up over the edge.

“Come on, we’re five minutes behind schedule” he muttered under his breath to her as she stood up to his height. Even though she was only 5ft 3ins and looked slightly dwarfed compared to his large figure of 6ft 3ins and butch build. The new multi-gym she had bought him for Christmas was beginning to take its toll a month on and he was looking in even better shape. At least it would give him something other ...

This is a preview of the whole essay

She pulled herself up onto the ledge where Bryn was waiting; he looked down at her crawling up over the edge.

ORC English GCSE Coursework It’s A Man Thing Alex Cook

They set off up the next crevasse towards the cliff face, the dog bounded on up ahead. When the reached the next face they began to set the equipment up. They first had to hammer the loops into the rocks for the start of the ascent. This particular cliff face was new to them and quite daunting, it was a complex series of pitches and climbs with a 60 degree angled overhang at the top. Bryn set off at a pace up the first section, Heidi close behind. She didn’t want him complaining about her speed for the sixth time on the journey. It really was hurtful the way he looked at her and said such things.

They had reached the overhang and Bryn was nearly up over it. As soon as Bryn was over it, Heidi looked around for Macduff to see if he had found his own way up yet. As she did so she leaned about a full hundred degrees to view down below her. This caused more tension than usual on the harness and it began to give. She felt it go and in almost slow motion began to plummet down towards the sharp rocks at the bottom; the rope stopped her abruptly around her foot. This in turn pulled her knee from its socket. She transferred from shock of falling quickly to shock of pain, at which point she let out a shrill high pitch scream. Bryn felt the rope snap back from him and heard the scream; he quickly crawled back to the edge to look down, upon the predicament Heidi was in.

“Just what I need” he muttered to himself.

Bryn began to assess the situation and decided the quickest action was to pull her by the rope wrapped around her leg. This was by far the least safe way, but his mind was on time and this time was precious if he was to reach the top first. He managed to pull her up bit by bit and heaved her body up over the edge into the nearest shelter of rock, laid her down slowly propped up against the wall. He had spent many times listening to first aid advice at the start of events and considered himself to be skilled in this art. He splinted her leg and covered her in the double quilted blanket that was in her backpack. Then radioed for help, but there was no reply, he tried six times, it was no use, and time was running out. By this time he began to pace up and down a short bit of path the dog closely followed behind each length.

He stopped abruptly and walked quickly back to Heidi, who was diving in and out of consciousness, she was awake at this moment.

“ I must continue up to the top,” he whispered quietly.

OCR English GCSE Coursework It’s A Man Thing Alex Cook

“No please, I need comfort,” she replied nervously

“I’ve got hold of search and rescued”, he lied “they’ll be here soon”

“Please, I need company” she said out of breath, the pain had worn her out mentally and physically.

“Macduff will stay here with you until I get back.”

With this thought she drifted out of consciousness and let her head fall back against the wall.

His mindset, he tied the dog to a near by boulder and set off on his ascent of the remaining quarter of the mountain. His thoughts were back with her lying there, as the wind picked up speed and the wind chill factor increased. He was nearing the top of the mountain now and his conscience was nagging at him to turn around, he dismissed this thought and ploughed on up. After another few climbs and struggles over the terrain he was even closer to his destination. His finger blue with cold and numb with pain he reached the last short climb. He glanced at his watch once more before he started to climb, it illuminated the fact that he was a good five minutes behind schedule and he thought bitterly back to when Heidi had slowed him down.

As he neared the top he heard voices. He thought that even though he was five minutes behind he would still win.

He heaved himself up over the edge to see the team leader of another team pouring one of his partners a glass of champagne. He let out a howl of anger and was nearly in tears at this sight. His efforts to win had been in vain. He cast his mind back to Heidi just lying there and a wave of guilt fell over him. He set back down the path he had come, as he neared where he had left her all he could hear was the dog whining. And he saw the motionless body of his long-term girlfriend lying there pale.

It was a morning not too dissimilar to the one of that tragic day not three weeks past when they found his note on the kitchen table of his new penthouse apartment in London. It clearly stated that he had been selfish back then and could no longer live with himself. He lay there in the dark pink water of the warm bath, eyes open and a look of shock on his pale face.