Day two started at 12 AM, or technically 11 PM because the “roo” had his clock wrong. (Not that we got much sleep that night since the bunks were like railway tracks). After some dry bread for breakfast we headed out and made slow and steady progress upward. By 4 AM, with a mounting blizzard and dropping temperatures, the Argentinean was developing hypothermia and our team was seriously threatened with the prospect of turning around.
As we prepared to turn around, lady luck tapped me on the shoulder, well, really it was the leader of another group that had already turned around before the summit on account of the cold. In the true spirit of mountaineering, they offered to take our frozen Argintinian down with them so we could continue.
The morning wore on and we passed more groups heading down as they too were forced to retreat. By 7 AM we were on the final leg, a relatively steep ascent to the summit.
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