"Did anyone else have their worst night ever?" inquired Steve.

I had spent hours trying to get to sleep, from too cold to too warm, being uncomfortable and listening to everyone else crawling in and out of bunks to use the restrooms downstairs. The Spanish couple had gotten up and left for the summit sometime during the night, which had added to my confusion. I had thought they were planning on leaving at 4:30am, but they must have left at 1am. My watch was buried in my backpack, so when the moon shined into the windows I thought it was almost sunrise. I was developing a massive headache and debated waking Bob or Travis.

Had we come to high to quickly? I tried to breathe deeply and drink more water but continued to feel dizzy and a little nauseous. I must have finally caught an hour or so of sleep when Steve woke up and asked his question.

"Yah, that might be my worst night ever, depending on whether the Chicago to Osaka flight last month counts as a night or not" I answered.

Everyone else had a headache and had slept little. Scott seemed to feel the best of all of us. We wandered outside and down the ridge to watch the sunrise hit Cayambe above us and see Antisana and Cotopaxi off to the south. Walking around in the fresh air outside of the hut helped our headaches a little.

After a cup of coffee I began to feel a lot better and we had a meeting to discuss what to do today. Steve, Scott, Travis and I took an acclimation hike up to the glacier and past a moraine lake. The views of the lower glacier beside us were amazing: a jumbled mass of crevasses and tottering seracs. We could also see moraines where the glacier used to reach further down but had been retreating recently.

We spotted the Spanish couple up on the ridge working their way toward to the summit. The weather appeared to be perfect for their ascent.

We meet up with Bob, Renato and Charles who had taken a different approach route around the cliffs above the hut and we descended the way they had come up. Clouds began to roll in and visibility went as low as 30 feet until we descended towards the hut. This route was much sandier and harder to ascend so we agreed to take the right hand route on summit day.

Bob was surprised at our group's ability to eat even when we weren't feeling very well. Most groups he had hardly ate at all in the high huts. Scott was certainly our anchor in this respect, always able to clean someone else's plate.

Travis took Renato, Scott and I out to the glacier to practice some crevasse rescue techniques. At the foot of the glacier a few locals were playing around and they watched us put on our crampons and stroll off over the hard ice.

The Spanish couple had returned after reaching the summit. They had great weather and were waiting for their ride back down the mountain. So we would have the hut to ourselves again.