The Mountain Between Us

The novel’s second protagonist is Ashley, a 34-year-old magazine column writer from Atlanta, Georgia. She’s in Salt Lake City because she’s on her way home from writing a fashion column. It’s the weekend of her wedding to her fiancé, Vince.

One of Ashley’s primary character traits is her strength. As a former taekwondo state champion, she’s physically strong. She uses that strength to survive a fractured leg, dislocated shoulder, and head injury after their crash in the wilderness. Additionally, she’s mentally strong: Ben notes how her humorous nature persists despite everything she has been through. While Ben’s knowledge is significant to their survival, Ashley’s strength is likewise important to their survival in several key moments. In the first, she crawls from her bed despite her severe injury to shoot the flare gun that allows Ben to see the crosshairs on the crossbow to kill the mountain lion. Then, when Ben repeatedly passes out from exhaustion on their journey to the cabin, she tends the fire and ensures their survival. Finally, when Ben flips the sled and ends up buried in the snow, she uses the last of her strength to pull him out, despite her refractured leg. These moments emphasize Ashley’s resilience.

Ashley is a crucial part of Ben’s change in the novel. Throughout, she encourages him to talk about his relationship with Rachel despite his struggle to do so. Additionally, she’s essential to Ben’s ability to let go of his guilt over Rachel’s death. Instead of directly confronting him about what happened or forcing him into a relationship with her, she gives him space to make his own decisions while being there to support him. When Ben expresses his feelings for her, her first act is to ask to meet Rachel and his children, conveying the support that she has for him and his history. Ultimately, Ashley’s love allows him to heal from his past with Rachel, moving forward to a new relationship with her.

In addition, Ashley makes her own change. From the start of the novel, she’s unsure about her feelings for Vince. In the plane, she asks Grover and Ben questions about their marriages, making it clear that she’s unsure about her own upcoming marriage. When Ben asks what she misses about Vince, she explains, “I miss his cappuccino maker, and the smell of his Mercedes, and the sparse cleanliness of his bachelor’s penthouse…the view off the balcony at night” (248). As Ben notes, “she had told [him] very little about Vince” (248), thereby conveying her lack of true feelings for Vince. Then, when she records a message for Rachel, she explains that she never “believed” in a love like the one that Ben and Rachel have, instead choosing to settle with Vince because she’s “comfortable.” However, after meeting Ben and seeing his love for Rachel, Ashley changes her opinion on love. She chooses to call off her marriage to Vince, conveying her change. At the novel’s end, she’s committed to being happy and finding love for herself instead of settling.

Although the novel doesn’t reveal it until the end of the text, Ben’s wife, Rachel, died four years before events of the novel while pregnant with twins. Due to a placental abruption, she faced the decision to terminate her pregnancy for her own safety or risk her life to try to carry her children to term. Her death is a source of guilt for Ben, as he struggles for years with his decision to try to force Rachel to terminate her pregnancy. However, she’s also a primary source of motivation for Ben in the wilderness. The compass and the recorder that she gives him are two symbols that reflect their enduring love for each other and help him and Ashley survive.

Ben’s love for Rachel is a vital source of encouragement for him, conveying the theme of Hope as a Driving Force in Humanity. He records messages for her each day, remembering their life together and discussing the situation that he and Ashley find themselves in. He does so out of the hope of making it out of the wilderness and returning to her. In this way too, she’s vital to his survival, giving him a way to work through their problems while providing him with an emotional escape from his situation.