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How to get the best of it all? One must conquer, achieve, get to the top; one must know the end to be convinced that one can win the end - to know there's no dream that musn't be daredIs this the summit, crowning the day? How cool and quiet! We're not exultant; but delighted, joyful, soberly astonished. Have we vanquished an enemy? None but ourselves. Have we gained success? That word means nothing here. Have we won a kingdom? Noand yes. We have achieved an ultimate satisfactionfulfilled a destiny. To struggle and to understand - never this last without the other; such is the law.
Sep 10, 2025
They say that if the Swiss had designed these mountains they'd be rather flatter.
I have two doctors, my left leg and my right.
Mountain hikes instilled in me a life-long urge to get to the top of any inviting summit or peak.
The best part is getting to the top 'cause the pain's all over.
Bouldering is like masturbation: not as good as the real thing but you don't need to worry about your protection.
Remember: if you take bivouac equipment along, you will bivouac.
One thing to remember on the Eiger, never look up, or you may need a plastic surgeon.
To put yourself into a situation where a mistake cannot necessarily be recouped, where the life you lose may be your own, clears the head wonderfully. It puts domestic problems back into proportion and adds an element of seriousness to your drab, routine life. Perhaps this is one reason why climbing has become increasingly hard as society has become increasingly, disproportionately, coddling.
You cannot stay on the summit forever; you have to come down again. So why bother in the first place? Just this: What is above knows what is below, but what is below does not know what is above. One climbs, one sees. One descends, one sees no longer, but one has seen. There is an art of conducting oneself in the lower regions by the memory of what one saw higher up. When one can no longer see, one can at least still know.
Somewhere between the bottom of the climb and the summit is the answer to the mystery why we climb.
If adventure has a final and all-embracing motive, it is surely this: we go out because it is our nature to go out, to climb mountains, and to paddle rivers, to fly to the planets and plunge into the depths of the oceans... When man ceases to do these things, he is no longer man.
I climb upon the highest mountains, laughing at all tragedies - whether real or imaginary.
Never noticed a female monkey not climbing as well as a male, have you?
Just a reminder - a guidebook is no substitute for skill, experience, judgment and lots of tension.
If thy heart fails thee, climb not at all.
John Wayne never wore Lycra.
Great things are done when men and mountains meet.
But risks must be taken because the greatest hazard in life is to risk nothing. The person who risks nothing, does nothing, has nothing, is nothing. He may avoid suffering and sorrow, but he cannot learn, feel, change, grow or live. Chained by his servitude he is a slave who has forfeited all freedom. Only a person who risks is free. The pessimist complains about the wind; the optimist expects it to change; and the realist adjusts the sails
The person who risks nothing, does nothing, has nothing, is nothing. He may avoid suffering and sorrow, but he cannot learn, feel change, grow or live.
Nobody trips over mountains. It is the small pebble that causes you to stumble. Pass all the pebbles in your path and you will find you have crossed the mountain. The mind does not create what it perceives, anymore than the eye creates the rose.
Mountains are not stadiums where I satisfy my ambition to achieve, they are the cathedrals where I practice my religion.
Some mountaineers are proud of having done all their climbs without bivouac. How much they have missed ! And the same applies to those who enjoy only rock climbing, or only the ice climbs, onyl the ridges or faces. We should refuse none of the thousands and one joys that the mountains offer us at every turn. We should brush nothing aside, set no restrictions. We should experience hunger and thirst, be able to go fast, but also to go slowly and to contemplate.
Climbing at altitude is like hitting your head against a brick wall - it's great when you stop.
If you want to climb it badly enough, you will. So... why bother ?
Screwing is more enjoyable than drilling bolt holes !.
As I hammered in the last bolt and staggered over the rim, it was not at all clear to me who was the conqueror and who was the conquered. I do recall that El Cap seemed to be in much better condition than I was.
If the conquest of a great peak brings moments of exultation and bliss, which in the monotonous, materialistic existence of modern times nothing else can approach, it also presents great dangers. It is not the goal of ‘grand alpinisme’ to face peril, but it is one of the tests one must undergo to deserve the joy of rising for an instant above the state of crawling grubs.
The greatest hazard in life is to risk NOTHING.
Mountains are the beginning and the end of all natural scenery.
On this proud and beautiful mountain we have lived hours of fraternal, warm and exalting nobility. Here for a few days we have ceased to be slaves and have really been men. It is hard to return to servitude.
Life is brought down to the basics: if you are warm, regular, healthy, not thirsty or hungry, then you are not on a mountain... Climbing at altitude is like hitting your head against a brick wall - it's great when you stop.
I find that rock climbing is the finest, most healthiest sport in the whole world. It is much healthier than most; look at baseball, where 10 000 sit on their ass to watch a handful of players
I believe that the ascent of mountains forms an essential chapter in the complete duty of man, and that it is wrong to leave any district without setting foot on its highest peak.
The man who moves a mountain begins by carrying away small stones.
Everyone wants to live on top of the mountain, but all the happiness and growth occurs while you're climbing it.
Experience comes from bad judgment.
After climbing a great hill, one only finds that there are many more hills to climb.
I soon learned that Everest wasn't a private affair. It belonged to many men.
Just put one foot in front of the other.
What we get from this adventure is just sheer joy. And joy is, after all, the end of life. We do not live to eat and make money.
While cares will drop off like autumn leaves.
Climb the mountains and get their good tidings. Nature's peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees.
Thousands of tired, nerve-shaken, over-civilized people are beginning to find out that going to the mountains is going home; that wildness is a necessity.
Climb the mountains and get their good tidings.
An adventure is only an inconvenience rightly considered. An inconvenience is only an adventure wrongly considered.
Climbing is the lazy man's way to enlightenment. It forces you to pay attention, because if you don't, you won't succeed, which is minor - or you may get hurt, which is major. Instead of years of meditation, you have this activity that forces you to relax and monitor your breathing and tread that line between living and dying. When you climb, you always are confronted with the edge. Hey, if it was just like climbing a ladder, we all would have quit a long time ago.
It is not the mountain we conquer, but ourselves.
Success seems to be largely a matter of hanging on after others have let go.
Er, I say, are you going to be able to get me out?