THE CONTACT 4.0 CUSTOMER shows up at the Arapahoe Inn just after eight. His name is Mike Haugen, and he's leading an expedition on Everest this season. He's driven through near-whiteout conditions from Denver to pick up his package.

Inside 217, Tom lays out the components, which include a waterproof case with a sat phone inside, an HP iPaq PDA with the Contact 4.0 software, and the Nera satellite modem. They need to test the sat modem, but there's no good signal at the motel. Usually, Tom goes up to Loveland Pass, which is at 11,992 feet, but it's ten o'clock and the snow has been coming down since five.

"We probably shouldn't go," says Haugen. "I think they're gonna close that pass. It's snowing pretty good out there." They look out the window and decide to go anyway.

Tom, Tina, and Mike jump into the Sjogrens' Ford Expedition and start up the road to Loveland Pass. Nine Inch Nails is blasting on the stereo; Haugen has his computer open on his lap, and the glow lights the cabin. Tina is leaning forward between the seats. The trip takes 15 minutes, and in the last ten they pass just two vehicles, a cowering 18-wheeler and some kind of snow-moving machine that looks like it came from another planet.

Then they pass two tracks leading over the edge of the winding road. They slow down and peer out. "I don't see a car," says Haugen. "I think the plow must have pushed snow down over there."

"Let's be good Everest summiteers and just keep going," says Tom.

Finally, they reach the pass, which is nothing more than a small clearing amid a swirl of snow in the headlights. A sign reads WARNING BACKCOUNTRY USERS AVALANCHE BLASTING USING LONG RANGE WEAPONRY. While Tom and Mike search for a signal, Tina jumps out. In the dark, she starts taking pictures of the sign and of Tom and Mike in the car searching for a signal. The pictures are black. "You have to get out," she says. "It won't work."

Mike finds a signal and the guys get out. Tina photographs them by the sign, by the car, by another sign. The cold is awful and everyone is shivering, so they all jump back in. They've clearly had fun on this escapade. As they head back, Tom, jazzed up, says to Haugen, "Did you hear about the guy who's going to climb Everest naked?"

"Oh, yeah," says Tina, already on top of it. "That goes up tomorrow."