Well, you could stop at the last ledge area which is probably less than a few kms from the top. It's almost the top, has one hell of an amazing view and you have really only done a hike to that point with no sense of serious heights. My wife, her friend and the gal in another couple who was sitting there when we arrived, all elected to hang out there and have lunch instead of pushing to the top. Actually, it was the fellow we met up with there who pointed out to us, 'the inexperienced,' that even though it wasn't really a mountain "climb" in the theatrical sense from there on, that we would always want to be hanging on to something due to the steepness.
He turned out to be a real mountain climber who kept us entertained with tales of being trapped in tents with snowstorms for days and hints of what it was like to be a port captain in New York. The second item explained how he could afford to travel the world so much to climb and also probably why he would want to do it. The job sounded pretty stressful.
