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The group rests at the shoulder beneath the final ascent. Rudi’s exhaustion is “forgotten in the bright promise” (223) of the summit. Winter is too fatigued to speak and sips tea from Franz, who asks if his head is hurting again. Winter admits that it is hurting “a little” but gets up, ready to keep climbing. Rudi realizes they have at least three hours to the summit and would never make it down before nightfall. They slowly start ascending the snow slope, but Winter is “anything but all right” (224), seized with a coughing fit. Franz insists that they stop for the day so Winter can rest, but Saxo is worried that the weather could change if they don’t summit now. While Winter asks the others to go on without him, Franz insists, “A guide of Kurtal does not leave his Herr on a mountain” (225). As they pitch their tents for the evening, Rudi remembers how “intoxicating” it was to have the fate of their climb rest on him as he climbed through the Needle. Now, there is nothing that he can do but “wait numbly; to hope and fear” (226).

As they eat and drink that evening, Rudi realizes Winter is worn out.