Well, we didn’t make it. More correctly stated, my body couldn’t make it. hahaha…
So we started out our day as planned and everything went as expected. Got up in our usual style… SLOW. Prior to leaving we each weighed our packs, out of curiosity mostly. TioTony’s weighed in at 49 pounds and mine at 45 pounds. Yes, quite hefty. Well, we got up and past Halfway Camp on our way to the evening’s destination, High Camp. About halfway between the two, my body decided to stop. Heart racing, shortness of breath, and (to state it nicely) stomach wanted to make itself empty, I pretty much shut down. Exhaustion kicked in, and it kicked in hard. Thought I could try to rest it out but taking three steps uphill kicked it right back in.
So, long story short, we made the call to backtrack down to Halfway Camp and made that home for the night. TioTony recently bought a very nice new 2 person 4 season Mountain Hardware tent. I figured there was a possibility to rest and try again since we packed for 2 nights, but, after a night of about 1–2 hours of sleep due to the above mentioned symptoms we made the call to head down the mountain.
I did take a few pictures and will post them soon. Not positive they’ll be as nice as Prince Roy’s summit trip of Yu Shan in Taiwan, but they should be nice. 😉
I would have liked to have made the summit, but, I’m not sad I didn’t. I believe that’s one of the things I enjoy about hiking; either way is rewarding. In a way you can look at it this way; knowing when to stop is probably even more important than actually making the summit. Allowing to remove the ego, at least enough to turn around and go back down, is enough of a reward for me.