Everest: The West Ridge, Anniversary Edition

Some were more cowed than invigorated by Willi’s energy, asking themselves, “How can we hope to keep up with that?”

I found that risk is an essential ingredient to life. The ability to accept uncertainty enables one to stay cool during crisis. The willingness to risk also underpins discovery: creativity in science or art or other ventures into the unknown. Finally, accepting that outcomes are commonly uncertain and failure often possible (for that is inherent in

This knot tied me to the past, to experiences known, to difficulties faced and overcome. To tie it here in this lonely morning on Everest brought my venture into context with the known, with that which man might do. To weave the knot so smoothly with clumsily mittened hands was to assert my confidence, to assert some competence in the face of the w

We had kept the ridge attempt alive against an opposition which we thought was founded on doubt and lack of interest.

my own health and performance at thirty-two might turn out poor compared to what it was in 1960;

Too much labor, too many sleepless nights, and too many dreams had been invested to bring us this far. We couldn’t come back for another try next weekend. To go down now, even if we could have, would be descending to a future marked by one huge question: what might have been?

Climbing of such difficulty had never been done at such extreme altitude.

As we sat there, the realization came that we were finished, demolished, literally blasted off the mountain. We hadn’t even sunk our teeth solidly into the climb. I felt no gratitude that we had escaped with our lives, only awe at the power unleashed on us, and a dissatisfied feeling of finality to all our dreams.

We need to learn again those essential qualities in our own selves which make us what we are: the energy of our bodies, the alertness of our minds, curiosity and the desire to satisfy it, fear and the will to conquer it.