Sometimes things don't go as planned - Cotapaxi for example

🏔 Summit conditions were just awful that day - we left at 1 am in freezing rain and high winds and the team in front of us broke a cornice on the main route by sloppily laying a ladder about 200 meters from the summit. We were terribly disappointed not to make it to the top, but decided that it was too dangerous to continue given the snow conditions and the irresponsible team in front of us, who refused to let us pass them. On our decent, the clouds finally broke and we were given a beautiful view of the valley below. Of course, mountaineering isn't about the summit - I learned more on that trip (where we got our asses handed to us on four separate summit attempts on 3 different mountins!) than I have on more technically challenging yet successful climbs. We later learned that someone died soon after we decended because the rest of the cornice gave way while they tried to cross. No matter how much you think it through, how hard you train, how much you want it, sometimes things just don't go as planned.