# Alpine Ascent v3b — Thin Air (the climb becomes a run)

`alpine-ascent-v3b` — levels: `calm.mp3` · `activity1.mp3` · `activity2.mp3` · `danger1.mp3` · `danger2.mp3`

The BOLDER second reading of the striding-house brief (B♭ lydian, 88 BPM, speed 6; the danger section jumps to 116). Where a faithful take keeps the climb a patient labor, this one commits fully to HOUSE and to the avalanche: a real four-on-the-floor footfall kick lives in the BED (ch3) from the activity branch onward (omitted in calm — standing still is the stride at rest), stacked-fifth B♭-lydian pads over it, the lydian #4 (E♮) glinting in the C-major color chord like the ridgeline catching light. The HORIZON head [§7 instance: sequenced up] is stated then transposed a diatonic step HIGHER every phrase (transposeDegrees(+1..+3)) — the ridgeline literally pulling the line up the register, the lydian 4 brushed in as a grace at the crest. Activity L1 (ch4-5) = that ascending pluck head + its soft echo a beat behind, a clear singable line climbing each phrase. Activity L2 (ch6-7) ADDS new material, not volume: a struckPiano counter-voice (tone WARM — the climb is intimate effort, not a bright fanfare) doubling the crests a sixth below AND a rolling lydian arp filling the bar — the stride filled out into a full arrangement. Danger L1 (ch8-9) = unease/the approach: the stride's footfall gone apprehensive (a heavier, sparser tread) under a darkening B♭/F drone, and a deepBoom that creeps EARLIER in the bar each cycle (the slope getting ahead of you) — real material, not near-silence. Danger L2 (ch10-11) = active fight/flee, a GENUINE intensity jump: the faster 116 section tempo + the kit crashing in — a galloping doubled kick filling the tread into a run + a driving snare backbeat (ch10) and an urgent shaker + hat run (ch11). The climb becomes a flat-out descent; it is new rhythmic material and higher density, never danger1 with the fader up. Fully diatonic B♭ lydian throughout — no chromaticism; dread is register, density, tempo, and the creeping boom, never a darkening chord and never foleyed wind/rockfall (those belong to the game's SFX + ambient soundscape, not the score).
