In a faraway land where it snows all year round and in the highest mountains, a story I want to tell you took place. It happened a long time ago. There is a mountain that is the highest in the world. People don’t go there. There’s piles of snow and sometimes there’s an avalanche. That means that some of the snow gets loose somewhere, and then all of it slides down the mountain. Even if there were no people living on the mountain, there was still some life. A snowman lived there.
He was huge and all white. He had shaggy fur, big hands and incredible strength. He lived alone in a hidden cave. No one had ever seen the cave, nor him. This snowman loved to go for walks. He’d always climb up the mountain, look around at the scenery around him, and then get on his big butt and ride down the mountain. It was great fun for him. The mountain was his home. He loved it there.
One morning when he was waking up in his cave, he heard a strange sound. It was as if someone was walking around out there, sighing all the time. “Ugh, oh, that’s hard,” heard the snowman over and over again. He couldn’t believe his ears. No one was coming up his mountain. He rubbed his eyes hard and went to see who was talking. He went all around the mountain, he couldn’t find anyone. But he could still hear that someone was there. Then suddenly, almost at the top, he saw a man. It was a climber. He was trying to climb to the very top of the mountain. But it wasn’t easy. The climber was not far from the top. But you could see that he had no strength left. He was slipping on the snow. It was getting harder and harder. The snowman watched him from a distance. When all of a sudden a piece of ice broke under the climber, he slipped, fell into the snow and triggered an avalanche. The snow pulled him under and downward. The snowman didn’t hesitate and ran after him with great strides. He jumped over the ice, shoveling snow and trying to find the climber as fast as he could.
When he finally dug him out of the snow, the climber was cold, weak, and his eyes were closed. The snowman took him in his arms and ran with him to his cave. There he quickly built a fire and put the climber close to it. He waited for him to wake up. He kept checking on him. He was worried about him. After a while, the climber woke up. He looked at the snowman. He looked around and saw that he was in a cave and that a fire was warming him. He sat down carefully. “Did you save me?” He asked the snowman. The man just nodded and stoked the fire. The climber continued, “Thank you. I couldn’t have done it without you.” The snowman just smiled. The climber slept all night in the cave by the fire. The snowman was stacking logs and keeping an eye on the climber. In the morning he felt better. It was time for him to go home. He said goodbye to the snowman and thanked him again.
As he walked home, he kept thinking about what he had experienced. He had heard that the snowman existed, but he didn’t believe in him. But now he saw him. And he was grateful to him for saving him. He decided he would do something to repay him. He hadn’t told anyone about him because he didn’t want people coming to see him and hurting him or trying to catch him. Once in a while, he would go to him alone. He always brought him something good that the snowman liked and made sure his mountain was safe.
