Today, I woke up at 5:00am, had a small breakfast in my tent, made water, and finally braved the icy wind so that I could check on the plan. Ferran’s group, the Taiwanese, and I decided to leave Camp II at 8am or 9am, a decision I would quickly regret. As we made our way up the face, the wind quickly died down and the heat of the day made us regret our decision to climb in our down clothing. The deep snow did nothing to help the situation either. It ranged from knee deep to hip deep as we continued making our way up the face to the ridge that we hoped would join the final stretch of the Japanese Couloir leading to Camp III. The combination of deep snow, the high temperature, and route finding made the climb to Camp III take far too long. After more than nine hours of climbing, and having reached an altitude of close to 7000m, I decided that I needed to begin descending if I was to have any hope for my own summit push. We all carried gear for Ferran’s team. I had a spool of fixed rope which I left secured to an anchor at my high point. I began descending the rocky ridge and when I reached the snowy slope, a piton flew out of the rock as I weighted it, sending me tumbling down the steep slope toward Camp II. Thanks to the warm afternoon temperature and deep snow, and the fact that I had stowed a trekking pole between my backpack and back, I quickly came to a stop, facing down the slope. I continued making my way down the slope slowly, double checking the anchors as I clipped into the rope. I reached Camp II after the sun had stopped warming the camp, and about an hour later, the Taiwanese arrived as well. I struggled to dry my soaked socks in the icy temperatures of my tent and after a couple hours, finally fell asleep.