We got a wake up call at 11:30PM last night and had breakfast at midnight this morning. We started our summit bid at 1AM. Nico says that he knew it was going to be gruelling 2 minutes after we started. I reached the same conclusion about three minutes later.  At this altitude it was possible to take 5 or 6 steps before needing to rest for several minutes. I could either choose to walk or talk, I could not do both at the same time. Until we paused at Hans Meyer Cave (pictured here) at 4AM for a snack, I did not have the energy to get my camera out. The picture is blurry because it was everything I could do to stand still without shaking. The wind chill was in the twenty below range. Nico was totally exhausted and we still had the most difficult part of the climb ahead of us.