It's also quite difficult to sleep in the thin air, though we manage to catch a few winks as we watch snow begin to fall. This is where many folks give up if they've walked too fast, or are physiologically having trouble with altitude. One of our cabin mates makes hourly trips outside to vomit, and will not go further. Everyone has a headache. The final climb up the mountain is much steeper than anything we've done.
Footing is on loose, frozen gravel.
A long, long line of hikers are in front of us, winding in sinuous switchbacks to ease the angle of climb, little flashlights barely illuminating the cragged, cold mountain. The sky is divinely bright with the magnificence of the cosmos. We proceed with exaggerated slowness, two or three little steps, then a pause to catch our breath. My typical behavior would be to plunge onward to this goal, since I still feel reasonably strong. However, my wife and daughter have also made it this far, and neither look too good.