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DAVID:

The 15 minutes atop Disappointment Cleaver flew by. The cold alpine air sapped all of our warmth as the heat from our effort faded into our bodies. The RMI Parkas that we begrudgingly packed up the mountain proved their weight in gold. Iva shivered greatly underneath her parka, unable to eat and barely drinking. Eben, our guide, lent her a second down parka and she began to regain her appetite.

Rahul and I tied into new ropes, and we were off climbing again in no time. The mountain began to glow well before the sun appeared above the horizon. We paused briefly while the guide on the lead team hacked a ledge and set protection along a particularly treacherous turn. While we waited, we saw the glacier around us for the first time - massive crevasses, sheer ice faces and all incredibly white.

It was all snow and ice from here to the top. We climbed for another hour and a half or so, reaching high break in full sunlight. The guides were incredibly efficient climbers, wasting no steps or doing anything that didn't take them up the mountain with as little effort as possible. We, on the other hand, were textbook examples of what not to do. We slid, slipped and generally fumbled our way up the mountain, expending unnecessary energy with every step. We rarely had energy to talk, and were mostly silent at our final rest break.

The guides had warned us many times to make sure we ate heavily at every break. I made the mistake of merely swallowing a single Gu, which gave me plenty of momentary energy, but was woefully inadequate for the work that remained ahead.

The remaining hour and a half climbing seemed to whirl by, because I was either really tired or really excited to get to the top. I was surprised when we crested the rim and the vista opened into a large snow-filled crater. We dropped our packs at the bottom of the crater and began to trudge across the crater to the official summit on the opposing rim. I was so drained at this point that I walked halfway, decided that I didn't really need to go, and then stood stationary for 5 minutes. I force fed myself some trail mix (which tasted awful at this point), and after a little while restarted my walk.

A few moments later, I had signed the register and reached the top of the rim. I kept forcing trail mix into my mouth, and I kept a mouthful of trail mix in all of the pictures of me at the summit.

The descent was awful. The sun had turned the firm icy surface of the glaciers into a wet mush. Our legs sunk deeply into the snow and we frequently slipped into the trail. Every step felt something like controlled chaos. We had to pause numerous times while we allowed groups that were still ascending to pass by. The ledge that we had hacked going up had greatly deteriorated, and both Rahul and Van lost their footing and self arrested on the steep slope below the ledge. They were still on the safety line and roped to the rest of the team, but it served to increase our awareness of the dangers around us. We rested at the top of Disappointment Cleaver and prepped for the most dangerous portion of the descent.

The route between Cathedral Gap and Ingraham Flats crosses under areas know for rock and ice fall and then crosses over several open crevasses. 5 minutes after passing this area, a rock slide ran down the mountain crossing our trail.

We rested at Ingraham flats and made one final push back to Camp Muir. I arrived utterly spent, with no idea how we were going to get back down to Paradise. An hour later, we were packed and back on the trail, sporting trekking poles instead of ice axes and crampons.