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Marshall, Hal, and I retreated back down the marked trail from the ridge where we abandoned Paul (some friends we are).  Now lower on Hance's wall, we tried the next valley over.  It was choked with scree and we soon fell into the two-steps-forward, one-step-back routine.   The feeling was something like running in molasses. 

About half way up, we opted to scale another ridge... you'd think we would have learned about ridges by now.   But noooo...  Anyway, the logic we followed was that ridges are not covered with scree and the climbing would be faster.  We failed to consider where the scree came from in the first place... it crumbled off of the ridges!  (At least it's comfortable to be ignorant.)

Interesting fact #2 awaited us at the top of this ridge climb... NO EXIT!