Delighted to find our cache and finally get some improving weather, we gathered our things and started to rappel the south face from a point directly below our high camp. Nine days into our seven-day supply, reversing the ridge to the cache to descend the gully south of the notch was out of the question. The climbing separating us from the cache was much more difficult and time consuming than we had expected. After approximately thirty rappels with our skinny alpine rack we touched down on the glacier at 15,600 feet with no pins, four stoppers, three cams, no runners and about 15 feet of tat left on the rack.

　　很高兴能够找到我们的隐藏地，天气也渐渐好转了，我们收拾好我们的东西，在营地下方固定好绳索，我们继续沿着南壁下降。原来就准备了7天的储备现在已经坚持到了第9天，我们需要快些下降解决供给问题。背着紧身登山包下降了大约30段绳距后我们到达海拔4755米的地方，这时我们只有4个岩塞（BD生产的STOPPER），3个机械塞（CAMS），大约4.5米的扁带套留在岩石上（译者猜测：作保护占用），遍带环和岩钉都没有了。

　　Anxious to avoid another night in our soggy down bags, we opted to descend to base camp that night. At 10:30 p.m., in the pouring rain, we found ourselves hopelessly lost in the brush at 14,200 feet. Lacking flat ground, we built a crude stone ledge in the talus, pitched the tent and settled in for a final, miserable night (forty-two hours had passed since our last bivi and fifty-two since our last meal).

　　为了不想在湿湿的睡袋中再度过一晚，我们决定连夜下撤到大本营。大约晚上10：30分左右大雨中我们发现我们迷路了，当时海拔4328米。由于没有平坦的地面，我们只能就着一个斜石坡把帐篷搭上，固定好。悲惨的夜晚，我们已经整整42个小时没有休息，52个小时没有进食了。

他们本次攀登的线路说明图 Dylan Johnson绘制（点击看大图）

　　The tenth day we hiked down to the Changping Valley, getting cliffed out in several loCATions and having to cross a gorge at 13,600 feet. The yak trail, as we saw from below, is on the north side of the valley, along the base of the walls. We reached base camp that afternoon at 2:30 p.m.

　　第10天我们下撤到了长平沟，越过一些山崖，穿过峡谷，一路沿着牦牛的足迹于当天下午2：30我们终于返回了大本营。

　　I lost over 30 pounds during the climb, Chad over 20. The route followed one rest day after a six-day acclimatization climb, a second ascent of a nearby peak by a 3000-foot rock climb (5.8, 12 pitches) topping out at 19,000 feet. Spanning a six-day weather window, sixteen of sEVENTeen consecutive days were spent climbing.

　　在这次幺妹峰的攀登过程中我体重轻了30磅（约13.6公斤），Chad轻了大约20磅（9公斤）。攀登之前我们进行了为期6天的适应性训练，之后休息一天开始正式攀登。攀登过程中，不仅登顶了主峰，还攀登了一座海拔5790多米，难度达5.8的12段绳距长的岩石路线的山峰。整个攀登计划共耗时17天，其中连续16天是在攀登中度过的。

　　译者注：

　　据译者向四川登协考证，本次登顶应该是幺妹峰有正式记载（在四川登协注册的）的第三次登顶，第一次为1981年7、8月间，日本同志社大学登山队由南壁转东南山脊首登；第二次就是2004年11月17日-18日包括了四名中国民间登山者马一桦、陈骏池、康华、陈泽刚和两个美国人：Jon Otto、Tim Boelter的那次登顶。

　　当然被世人所熟知的还有两次偷登（没有在四川登协注册的攀登）一次是1994年美国人Charlie Fowler沿南壁转东南山脊新路线单人solo登顶。另一次则是2002年英国人 Mick Fowler和Paul Ramsden沿幺妹峰北壁直上那次梦幻登顶。

　　据悉在今年的11月份，还将有一队由我国的民间登山者组建的登山队要尝试攀登幺妹峰，在这里也期待国人在幺妹峰上的再一次辉煌。