Climbing / Mountaineering Quotes

[Global_09]

What are your favourite Climbing/Mountaineering Quotes:

Love this one:

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." (William Arthur Ward)

[CharlesD]

"There have been joys too great to be described in words, and there have been griefs upon which I have not dared to dwell; and with these in mind I say: Climb if you will, but remember that courage and strength are naught without prudence, and that a momentary negligence may destroy the happiness of a lifetime. Do nothing in haste; look well to each step; and from the beginning think what may be the end."

Edward Whymper, "Scrambles Amongst the Alps" - 1865

[The Chief]

"The best climber in the world is the one having the most fun!"
Alex Lowe

&

"Screw the Guidebook! Just tie in and Go Climb the God Damn Route!"
Batso, 1977

[Dave Daly]

"It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself for a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat."


-Teddy Roosevelt, 1910

[ksolem]

With all due respect to the great Alex Lowe... I have always found this quote a bit annoying and frequently deployed as an excuse for weakness and under achievement.

( ...I suppose I should just paint a target on my chest for saying that, huh.)

[The Ogre]

Paul Petzoldt (sp?), on climbing in the Himalaya and Karakoram:

"It's just camping." (Quoted from Mountaineering: The Freedom of the Hills).

His point, apparently: it's more important just to be at home in the wilderness, than to possess great technical skills. Being comfortable leads to other good things.

And my favorite quote of all time, not from a mountaineer, but certainly a dude who knew and appreciated the wilderness:

"Whoso would be a man, must be a nonconformist." Ralph Waldo Emerson.

I think this applies to all of us here, men and women. I think we all understand just what Ralph was talking about.

[The Chief]

[ksolem]

Who was it that said "It's kind of like fun only different?"

[The Ogre]

[Tie-Dye Mike]

"It's not the mountains we conquer, but ourselves"-Sir Edmund Hillary

"I climb them not because they're there, but because I can"-unknown to me

[The Chief]

[Dave Dinnell]

Wow, lots of great quotes.

My favorite, especially spoken at the end of a climb:

"Hey, Dave, wanna beer?"


I don't think I'll ever get tired of that one.

[Deb]

"It's downhill from here."
Very innocent statement on the top of Lone Pine Peak, author not to be dimed out here..........but it still makes me laugh.

[ksolem]

Kind of like the old sign on top of Devil's Tower:

"No Climbing Beyond This Point"

[dug]

"Only 3000 ft to go"

"Shit"