I think I understand what Viesturs means when he writes, “The mountain decides whether you climb or not.” And yet, I’m sure he would also recognize that there is a point at which the body, apart from the mountain or the mind, dictates a “stop.”
After a short visit to High Camp, we return to the comforts of Low Camp. It is an uneventful descent of about two hours duration. I pick my way through the boulder-strewn path and realize that the trekking poles are more valuable going downslope than they were going upslope.