I climb for the chicks (or bunnies!)

Physical challenge. Mental challenge. Planning (love it when a plan comes together...). Camaraderie and teamwork. Weather is cool. Jokes are funnier after you bonk...

Sense of accomplishment ("It's not the mountains we conquer but ourselves." Sir Edmund Hillary). Goal is tangible and easily measured, unlike most things in our everyday life. Ramen tastes great when you're there. Food and beer taste better and colder when you're done. Life's simple pleasures are amplified.

Awe and inspiration and the requisite sense of wonder - "Eastward the dawn rose, ridge behind ridge into the morning, and vanished out of eyesight into guess; it was no more than a glimmer blending with the hem of the sky, but it spoke to them, out of the memory and old tales, of the high and distant mountains." JRR Tolkien


Cheesy, huh?

I think Shatner says it best - Video Interview

"not for the achievement, but for the joy"--Noel Odell (paraphrased from memory of his AAC journal obit, ca. 1989)

Amended: Just found Houston's obit. in the 1989 AAJ on-line, and embarassedly note that my memory recalled it there, where it is not.

The point remains the same. And I'd wager Odell would subscribe to the judgment, even if he hadn't uttered it.

I'm always searching for freedom in the mountains, that's it.

Freedom from people
Freedom from our crazy society
Freedom from the money lovers (and i hate money)
Freedom from the cities....