After failing on our 2005 attempt, we were back at it again in 2006. Charles, Fabio, Nelson and I enlisted a couple other summitpost.org/14ers.com members to join our effort. Jeff and Dan had their own failed attempt at the end of October so we all had a score to settle with Drift.

Although bitterly cold, the conditions were much better than during our past attempts. Even though the going was pretty stiff we all managed to summit (thanks largely to Dan, Jeff, and Charles' trail-breaking efforts).

During the last few hundred vertical feet I began to feel pretty crappy. On the summit the urge to puke began to take a firm grip on my guts so I descended as quickly as possible. After descending a good 500' I had thought I was in the clear, but a few steps later a buckled over and tossed my cookies. This is the first time I'd ever puked on a mountain. I didn't begin to start feeling better until we were down off Gold Hill.

Even with the puking episode it was a great day out. Good friends, beautiful scenery, and a successful ascent... it couldn't have been much better.