We were all safely in our tent by 1:00 PM when the rain started in earnest. So the round trip took us a little under seven hours. It poured for three or four hours that afternoon. We were worried about the PA team because we had a feeling that the "shortcut" wasn't really. As it turned out they did make it down through the difficult climbing before the rain started. However, they were still a talus field and a hike around the lake away from their tents.

Back at camp we happened to notice that Santosh's boots were somewhat the worse for wear. That's a euphemistic way of saying that they were about to fall apart. We were all pretty amazed at the state of the shoes and the amount of danger we all would have been in had one of 'em given out on the ridge. We were grateful for our luck, but we knew Santosh would have to be very careful on the climb down the ledges.