What pushed us relentlessly on was fear that we might be late for work the following day… which would be unacceptable and nearly unthinkable. Back then, I had not even an inkling that it was at all possible to call in "sick" at our job. It wasn't just "work" the way most people think of work. We were Rainier Mountaineering Incorporated climbing guides scheduled for a two-day summit climb beginning at 9am sharp and we were proud as heck of that fact.

We didn't call it the "guide service" for nothing. I for one often made the mistake of putting my work up there on par with saving the free world and advancing the cause of medicine and space exploration. I was in my second year of guiding then. Curtis was in his first and we both had impressions and reputations that needed making. The following day was to be a climb led by the great Phil Ershler… just home from something big and steep and famous in a place where people spoke odd languages. We HAD to be at Paradise for the climb. So getting down Ulrich's Couloir began to become an obsession.

We came to about a hundred little dead end puzzles that needed solving. As climbing guides, we knew well the value of taking in food and water to power our bodies through the ordeal. And that is why I thought Curtis was really stupid not to have brought any of that stuff. He thought the same of me, as it turned out. We did run across a gooey little puddle on the rock that we took turns slurping from...