Sweet Sixteen

The air was so thin our breaths came in deep, raspy gasps.

The wind whipped us with frigid blasts direct from Antarctica.

The sun was setting.

We knew then we left our base camp too late.

We’d already climbed thousands of feet but were short of our goal.

We were running out of light and were still not there.

Then Steph started having chest pain and difficulty breathing.

My first thought was high altitude pulmonary edema, but I didn’t say so.