Forced Bivouac

My friend took this photo with my phone at 5:30am. I am lying under a tarp, on the side of a mountain, next to a dying fire and a prickly conifer.

We found ourselves in this situation after climbing a multi-pitch route for about 10 hours and rapping down in the dark (an adventure in its own right). I had a working headlamp, but my friend's torch was too weak. The descent was very steep and rocky, so at about 1am we decided to sleep under the stars than risk twisting an ankle in the dark.

We fell asleep instantly, but after an hour of cooling temps and cold rocks I woke up to uncontrollable shivers. We collected some branches and started a fire just when it began to rain. Fortunately we brought a tarp with us and rigged up a quick shelter, connecting the tarp to trees and rocks with our quickdraws (seen hanging in the foreground).

The rest of the night we tried to keep close to the fire and out of the rain, getting a few minutes of sleep here and there. The sunrise was very beautiful. We walked out at about 8am and drove home.