Winter had given Ciel the pick of the lot for scaling the plateau. It was part of her training and a test in a way, to see if Ciel could select the best for the job. She understood that Winter was looking out for her development as a officer, and she knew that Winter, like General Ironwood, appreciated the hands-on approach. That's how Ciel found herself scaling the massive rock wall with Haricot and Amin. The Ace Ops man was not going to be staying with them, so once they reached the top it would just be her and Haricot. Ciel had chosen Haricot because she remembered the woman's Semblance protected her, and those nearby, from the wind. This was already proving to be invaluable, as Ciel could see not far off how miserable the other three were.

The wind howled past, constantly hurling attempts at Bree, Gardet, and Ytterby. They held fast, but it made for much slower climbing just because of how much they had to focus on not being blown off. Meanwhile, climbing just below Haricot, Ciel couldn't feel the wind at all. It was miraculous, and she was so glad that Winter hadn't kept the woman as her own personal attachment. In fact, she was considering doing that herself, if at all possible. It wasn't entirely selfish, it was a practical thought, since nobody wants their subcommander getting blasted off a three hundred foot cliff. And Ciel didn't want to be that subcommander.

Besides the force of the assaulting wind, and the freezing cold that came with it, Haricot's Semblance also apparently nullified the roar of its fury, so communication was surprisingly easy. "Haricot, what's the range on your Semblance?"

The harder soldier woman glanced down to where Ciel was following uncomfortably close behind her. "Ten feet out. So you don't have to be two feet directly below me all the time."

Ciel was pretty sure she heard Marrow say "I'm cold" somewhere like six feet below her, just outside that ten foot range. She ignored him and pulled herself up so that she could keep as close as possible to her source of not-freezing. Hanging half from the cable they'd fired up towards the top of the plateau and half from the side of the rock face itself, she continued to try and get a feel for what Haricot offered in this situation. "Have you climbed a cliff like this before?"

Haricot looked down at her with disbelief. "You picked me for this and don't even know?"

That wasn't a fair assessment. "I know what your file said, but I'm talking about experience. Just because you've passed tests doesn't mean you remember any of it, liked it, struggled with it or were a natural. All it says is your technical ability."

She sighed. "Well, as you seem to be aware, I've had an easier time with this than most. Indoors, in controlled environments, I'm no better than anyone else. Out here, where the wind is your enemy, I have a clear advantage." She stopped and reached down, grabbing Ciel's wrist and forcing her to let go of the rope, putting her hand on a very narrow rock ledge instead. "Don't put your weight on that. It's not secure enough. Could come down if we strain it constantly."

"Oh, okay." Ciel gritted her teeth, not pleased to be forced to hold onto the cliff with both hands. The rope felt sturdy and safe, and she didn't really trust her body's strength to keep her on the rock. Her instinct was telling her the opposite of what Haricot was telling her. Most of her weight was hanging from her fingertips, with the toes of her boots barely touching the cliff. It felt like she was almost pushing off already. The worst part was, wind or no wind, her fingers were freezing. "When can we climb with gloves?"

"We can't." Hacking at the stone with a pick, Haricot frowned. "It might be possible once we get the rope secured at the top, but that's getting there first. Until then, our fingers are our best assets." After another couple of feet, Haricot stopped and hooked herself onto the side of the cliff. Ciel had seen the tool that she used for that before, but she had absolutely no idea how it actually worked or how Haricot could suddenly just rely on it so much as to take her hands off the cliff completely and hang out idly. Haricot took a drink from her canteen, waiting for Ciel to catch up to her. Once they were even, she hooked something somewhere, and in all the lines, Ciel couldn't tell what was now different. Haricot shook her canteen. "Take a drink. We need to stay hydrated up here."

"Right." Ciel did as she was told, slightly regretting choosing to climb with someone who was so bossy in spite of their difference in rank. The shouts from the other side as the wind caused more grief for the other team made sure her regrets remained very slight. Taking a drink and placing her canteen back on her belt, she watched Haricot, taking in how the woman took to the cliffside so naturally. "You're being modest, though. You are very good at this."

She shook her head in response. "No, I'd say Ytterby is definitely better, so it's a good thing the others have him helping them."

"Really?"

"Oh yeah, he complains a lot, but he's one of the best there is. Compared to him, I'm more of a... hobbyist." She turned her attention back to the cliff above them. "Alright, let's keep moving. There's another... three or four hundred feet to go."

Letting out a quiet groan, Ciel heard Marrow groan below them as well. She let Haricot go up ahead, and then followed closely behind. Not being anything like an expert, Ciel really didn't know what that small, seemingly simple tool was, but every twenty or thirty feet Haricot would anchor one into the side of the cliff. Supposedly, if they did fall, these would stop them from falling very far, and then it would only be a matter of regaining lost ground.

While the climate made it difficult, Haricot made it easy, and so they found themselves nearing the top of the plateau within a surprisingly short amount of time, considering the obstacles. First, Haricot disappeared over the edge, and then a second later, she held out her hand for Ciel to take and helped her up onto the cliff beside her. Ciel wanted to sit down in the snow, but she knew they needed to work fast to erect their shelter. While Haricot waited for Marrow so she could help him up as well, Ciel unloaded the tent from Haricot's pack and started setting it up.

It wasn't exactly a tent like most people would imagine it. The Atlesian Military Far-North Expedition tent was a low, squat, box. There were four poles for the corners, which Ciel anchored into the ground well away from the edge of the cliff so as to avoid knocking anything loose to land on the people down below. She unrolled the canvas and affixed it over the four corners, covering herself in the process, and telescoped the poles to make the shelter a little bit taller. Finally, the fifth pole, the center, was anchored into the ground, drilling through two feet of snow and a foot of solid rock, and telescoped up to make the center of the roof a little higher than the corners. Overall, from stone to peak, the tent was almost six feet tall. Ciel then began the process of shoveling the two feet deep snow out of the tent.

Haricot joined her well before she was done clearing out the snow, and together they managed to finish up quickly. Once that was done, they unloaded the rest of the gear they had brought. The two packs were set in the corners on either side of the door, which was kept shut by means of a series of buttons on either side. The bedrolls were set to the side, but they would certainly be needing to use them at least once each, and the food and water was set beside it. Haricot began assembling the small space heater they'd brought, while Ciel checked out all the observation and communication equipment they had. Just as she was sure that everything was in working order, Ciel could feel a sudden wave of ever-so-slightly less cold air hit her from the space heater.

"Two days up here, huh. I'm sure there are worse assignments."

"Yes ma'am." Haricot responded curtly while rubbing her hands together and holding them over the heater.

Ciel knew she was not known among her peers to be a highly chatty girl, but there had not been any room in their packs to bring a book, so they would most likely eventually end up having idle conversation. She supposed, however, that it was too much to ask that they start right away. It ached, though, knowing that the two books she had thought to bring were sitting several hundred feet below them in their expedition vehicle.

The radio crackled to life. "Gardet here. Come in, Soleil."

Ciel had been waiting with the radio in hand. "Soleil here. We can hear you. Is your shelter up?"

"Yes ma'am. Shelter up, and Bree is on her way. All equipment is in working condition."

"Good. We're the same." She glanced over to Haricot questioningly, and the woman gave a nod. "Amin has departed as well. Check in every hour on the hour."

"Yes ma'am."

Setting the radio down on the cleared stone floor of their shelter, Ciel laid on her back, taking a second to relax before going straight back to work. They had everything they needed for the next two days save for a sufficient supply of water, which was the one thing that they couldn't easily compress. The food could be reconstituted, most of the equipment could be disassembled and collapsed, but the water took up too much space. Thankfully, nature's wrath saw to it that there was plenty enough just outside. The space heater and the material that the tent was made from, which kept the heat inside and the cold outside, ensured they wouldn't freeze to death so long as they stayed inside. Their job up here, however, meant spending a lot of time outside, surveying the land on top of the plateau and below them as well.

Speaking of which, it was time to get on to that. Ciel got up, not at all looking forward to what she was about to do. "Finish getting everything set up." She took a pair of binoculars in hand. "I'll start looking around."

"Yes ma'am." Haricot answered again.

Ciel stepped out of the tent, closing the door behind her. Immediately, she could feel the difference without Haricot next to her. Whatever benefit the space heater had given was stripped away instantly, the freezing wind prying at her like a living monster trying to get to her bones. She stuffed her hands into a thick pair of mittens, which she'd sadly had to leave unused for the climb up, and gripped the binoculars, heading over to the edge of the plateau. She knew better than to get too close, however. Unlike Ozpin, Ironwood never required his academy regulars to figure out a landing strategy, and while Ciel knew many who had gone ahead and done so anyway, she was not one of those people. Without Haricot, the wind could easily dislodge Ciel with a sudden unexpected burst. She didn't want to be that subcommander.

Since she was staying just clear of the edge, she wouldn't be able to look directly down at the camp, which was regrettable, but she would leave that job to Haricot. In the meantime, she was looking out over the vast frozen shelf beyond the plateau. She didn't expect to see anything of interest, and no one else did either, but letting down your guard because there wasn't supposed to be anything dangerous was an action typically followed by regretting that action. So she kept watch. Not that she could really see all that well in the first place. The wind and the snow made it near impossible to see anything, or nothing, at this distance.

A blast of wind suddenly knocked her off balance, and the snow around her feet flew away in a sudden flurry of excitement. Blinded and stumbling, Ciel staggered forward and found her foot going over the edge of the cliff. In spite of everything she had done to avoid falling to her death, it hadn't been enough. She closed her eyes, and the wind suddenly stopped. She stopped falling, hanging over the edge of the cliff on a ninety degree angle, one foot dangling over the abyss and the other barely touching the side of the plateau. Something was tugging on her belt.

"The binoculars?"

Ciel looked over her shoulder to see Haricot holding on tight to a cord which was attached to Ciel's belt. Ciel hadn't attached it, so Haricot must have latched it onto her at the last second, saving her from an unfortunate end to her career. Binoculars. Ciel looked down to her arms, which were dangling just as helplessly as her leg. She hadn't dropped the binoculars, they were still in one hand.

She sighed and nodded, exhausted. "I have them."

"Good. Okay, I'm going to pull you back up. Don't move." Steadily reeling her back in to safety, Haricot pulled Ciel back up onto the plateau top, then walked her away from the edge. "That was a close call. Why weren't you hooked up?"

"I... forgot."

"You cannot forget something like that. It is, as you just saw, a matter of life and death. From now on, every time you leave the shelter, I need you to show me that you're hooked up." Haricot took the binoculars from her. "And don't forget to hook your equipment onto you again either. If you'd dropped these, it could be deadly to someone down below."

"R-right..." She didn't like being scolded and ordered around by someone of a lower rank, but she knew Haricot was right, and she was still too shaken to argue the point anyway. "It won't happen again."

"Good. Go inside and drink some water. I'll finish the survey and be right in."

"Yes ma'am." In shock and more than a little embarrassed, Ciel didn't notice that she'd referred to the soldier as she would a superior. Unhooking herself and securing the cord, she went in and took off her mittens, sitting down in a gloom. That scare had taken a lot out of her. "I'm not ready for this."