Day 60
   
   6/26/01
   14,200' Camp, Denali
   
   The best laid plans of mice and men go oft awry.
   
   This morning Mike told me that he had been wrestling with a sense that
   he should "walk away" and go back down.  It's one of those instances
   of premonition that we all deal with.  He had made his decision, and for
   all we know, it may have saved his life. Aircraft pilots are free to
   determine for themselves when conditions are good to fly; climbers
   have their own sacred right to determine what is appropriate.
   
   After lunch, he began packing his gear, and later found a pair of
   Japanese climbers that had come up to this level to place a cache and
   were heading back down to their camp at 11,200'.  Much to my chagrin, we
   said our goodbyes, and he roped up with them and headed down.  I watched
   him recede into the distance, knowing the situation could just as easily
   be reversed.
   
   I had a lot of thinking to do.  I'd have to reorganize gear and dump a
   lot of extra food in a cache here, and plan out what I would do next.
   I spent the rest of the evening doing just that, and went to sleep
   wrestling with a new set of thoughts.

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