one of the most important lessons of mountain craft is calling when to turn back, having hard turn around times, and making conservative decisions.
Two thirds of accidents in the mountains happen on the descent, mostly because they t everything into reaching the summit and are too tired for a safe descent.
it can be incredibly frustrating to turn back just before a summit but it is more than often the right call. I remember in Switzerland me and some friends spent 9 hours one day on the approach staying in a hut, got 5 hours sleep and then put in close to 8 hours trying to summit after balling through terrible conditions. We also knew once on the summit we would have an easier descent off the backside. But we hit the max time limit, we were exhausted, there were still unknowns if we got to the summit, and that 20-30 minute easy ridge to the summit can easily end up being 2 hours.
4 hours later trudging through the dark extremely miserable it definitely felt like the right call!
I've lost some friends of friends in the mountains, and had some scary warnings. Just this December I had planned on a ski tour and spent ages checking topos, weather, routes etc. At the last minute I called it off because I wanted to be conservative, end up on a boring flat forest road. 2 days later someone died in an avalanche on the same mountain on a very similar aspect to my intended route.
Some years back I ran to the top of Half-dome as a storm approached on the horizon, I was confident I could run to the top and back down before the lightning was anywhere close. I had hiked for like 8 hours in the heat b then, and I had flown across the world to do that so i didn't want to turn back in the last 15 minutes. I made it, just before the heavens opened, the lightning seemed to stay in the distance though. A month later a couple of guys died on the summit form lightning strikes. That served as valuable less some year later when I was climbing a mountain in Switzerland. I felt tingles on the back of my neck and weird sounds. I remembered reading about this in the mountain when the atmosphere is highly charged, despite being close to the summit I got right off the ridge and legged it down hill and then saw the sky light up 15 minutes later.
It is especially important to be conservative if you go solo.
Remember, there are also other chances to try again.
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taking a 3 season bag which might be pushing it though, anyone know if 4 is really required in the region at this time of year?
