Dave stopped just past Cathedral Lake to rest and enjoy the view from a rock outcropping.

We continue to slog up the switchbacks. Shortly past this point the ground levels out into a small plateau, but Jay doesn't look so good - hmmm? By the time we reached the plateau, Jay told me he had a bad headache. He was getting classic altitude sickness symptoms. He was nauseous, shaky, and had a pounding headache. We stopped and sat down for a break and some food. The GPS was reading 8700ft. The final 1000 ft would have to wait for another day as we needed to turn back and get Jay to a lower elevation. He was wobbly and had difficulty keeping his balance on the return down the switchbacks. We are very lucky he spoke up and didn't push on any further.