This is the descent on Saddleback, one of the mountains in the Great Range of the Adirondacks. It's steep, and committed—a fall back here would have been very serious. The footing on the granite with crampons was horrendous.

I had brought along a tiny bit of rope to make the descent safer, but M suggested as I was setting up the rappel that we should just go back. We had set out intending to summit all 8 peaks of the range in a single day, but were several hours off of the necessary pace. So getting down this safely still wouldn't have gotten us to the top of Mt. Marcy before sundown.

It's not always fun to abandon a bold hike, but it's really important to be able to do it when necessary.