Our New Year's Eve wasn't exactly a pre-dawn alpine start. We were operating on a more civilized 10 AM departure from the ACC lodge. After all, Ha Ling, while worthy challenge, wasn't Everest. We weren't expecting to summit by brunch.
Waking
up at 8:30 allowed for the usual lodge morning rituals: the mad dash for a
vacant bathroom (a small victory in itself), the kitchen scavenger hunt (where
*are* the plates this time?), and breakfast with the other intrepid
adventurers… or, well, just us. It seemed everyone else was either already
conquering some other peak or wisely choosing to sleep in.
