Looking down the chute toward the Hogsback and 'schrund on the descent. All manner of tomfoolery was going on. Guided groups, solo climbers, people in jeans, camo fatigues, people absolutely terrified and downclimbing 15-degree slopes... It was comedy, and luckily there were no errors (that we saw - we did hear of a group falling into the 'schrund the day before). We let a few frightened souls pass us as they looked very much like they might fall and floss our rope team into the gaping crevasse below. One such group was moving fairly slowly, so I had the opportunity to turn around and look back up the route. At that point I found myself directly under the western Pearly Gate, a massive rock and ice ridge with characteristically serious rock and icefall potential. And so I simply called down some words of encouragement to our routemates: "Sure. Just take it easy. I'm just going to hang out here under this ice avalanche waiting to slam into all of us. Take your time."