Tempting Fate Summary and Analysis

At five a.m. the following morning, Joe's hands are so cold that he has "hot aches." He says his only consolation is that once he is over this session of aches, he will not have them again on this trip. Simon begins the ascent up the ice field. When Simon plants his ice pick for the first time, Joe says "this was it." Simon climbs to the end of their rope, one hundred, fifty feet above Joe. He issues a "cheery shout" and Joe begins the climb. Joe says that by two thousand feet, the monotony of the climb has set in and they wonder when they will clear the ice field. When they are above it, Joe catches up to Simon to discover that he has started lunch, including a hot drink over a small stove and...