Day 9: The weather in the mountains can be scary

The question today: do we go with the Swedish guys to Stein, which is just a 2 hour hike, but as we had gained one day before, it could be or second kind of rest day. Or do we combine with the next days tour? The day before the last one was exactly what I had named the only option unacceptable to me. As the next day was already planned to be 7.5 hours. However, it has been pointed out to me that by going there directly, we would save some meters back and forth, so actually the route won't be that much longer. And the weather forecast was saying it will only get worse there, the next day even snow!  So there I go again...
The beginning of the day was great! We walked in nice weather, quite some incline, but a very nice path. And then in the middle of the ascent it started to rain. Well, rain by itself is not that bad. But everyone is saying: 'you don't want to be up a mountain during a thunderstorm'. And yes, I can understand that. So here is the situation: my hiking buddy since day 2 already up the mountain, me being really scared and trying to go faster which is not really possible with my fitness and 2 new friends still a bit behind me. So my only thought: please no thunderstorm (how should I know if it is only rain and a mean wind) or more?
So the moment I saw my hiking buddy come back down I had 2 thoughts: 'Wohoo help' and 'oh shit, then it's bad'. It turned out it wasn't. He had just decided that he'd rather come down and carry my backpack up the last bit then waiting for me in the cold rain :-) Lucky me! Luckily the weather turned better quite soon, but we didn't want to risk it and made or way back down the other side quite quick. Pity as it would have been very beautiful with better weather.
The rest of the day: 4 hours decent, to the point that everything hurts, at least for me. Another 8 hours hike day for me, ending exhausted but happy at the guesthouse.

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