I could go on, but I'll leave it at this: these guys are awesome. If you have a chance, climb with them. They've been climbing since they were kids and have managed to get to the top of a great many of the peaks in the Cascade Range. The fact is, they rarely climb with anyone else - I don't know how I got in. But I felt very fortunate to be on the mountain with them. They were very thoughtful, considerate and encouraging partners. And at times - most of the time, in fact - they functioned like one person, which was fairly amazing to witness.

Anyhoo, that's enough of that.

No, we didn't all share the Bibler Eldorado, though if we'd been truly hardcore we could have. Chris and I slept in the tent while Brett slept in his bivy sack next to the tent, below a wall we'd dug out in the glacier. Luckily the weather was reasonably warm the first two days we were on the mountain.

As I mentioned, we planned to be on the mountain three days. The first day we made it up to camp. Day two would be a rest day. Day three would start at midnight, we would attempt the summit, then descend back to base. If weather intervened we were prepared to stay one extra day.