Best 85 quotes in «mountaineering quotes» category

As de Saussure said, risk-taking brings with it its own reward: it keeps a "continual agitation alive" in the heart. Hope, fear. Hope, fear - this is the fundamental rhythm of mountaineering. Life, it frequently seems in the mountains, is more intensely lived the closer one gets to its extinction: we never feel so alive as when we have nearly died.

As one veteran Russian pilot dryly told me:"We have to be very careful flying in the clouds. Around here they are full of rocks.

Climbing has taught me many lessons, one of the most important being, just how ever-present death is. Having faced death a few times now while climbing, has made me realize that I have no fear of it.

climbing a mountain represents a chance to be briefly free oneself of the small concerns of our common lives, to strip off nonessentials, to come down to the core of life itself. Food, shelter,, and friends - these are the essentials, these plus faith and purpose and a deep and unrelenting determination.

Det er tre ting en mand vil ha for sig selv, og det tredie er soveposen.

Dokker træng en hest," sa de. "Ja vil dokker bryte dokker så grynsmå," sa han, "så har æ no mærra her. Ka dokker betale? Vil dokker op og slå dokker tell individ, så skal æ kjøre dokker både op og ner. Hos mæg skal dokker ikje omkomme, dokker skal ikje førlise et hår. Ka dokker betale? Her e ingen så lægg to pinna i kors førr dokker, neida, bare hjølpsomme folk overalt.

Drømme tåler ikke å bli virkeliggjort, sier dikterne, for da dør de. Her gikk den lys levende og i all sin høireiste glans like lukt ind i sin jordiske inkarnation - i et fjorten hundrede meters eventyrslott av sølvgrå granitt.

-Du, sa han, jeg var på Tryvannstoppen igår. -Håner du mig atpå, sa jeg og så på ham som en såret hind. -Tvert imot, sa Håkon; -for derfra så jeg et fjeld. -Ikke Dovre vel? -Vet ikke. Strøk i geografi. Men det lå i nordvest. Jeg blev mykere. -Kan du - hm- kan du sværge på at det var et fjeld? -Det var iallfald et sted uten trær. Dette med "ikke trær" blev avgjørende. -Vel, sa jeg, loddet er kastet. -Hvor da? -I nordvest. Vi starter her utenfor på fortauget lørdag klokken ni, og jeg lover at jeg ikke vil rake mitt hår eller klippe mitt skjegg før jeg står på det sted hvor der ikke er trær.

Fjordene fylder sine lunger med uvørne drag der nord, og himlen har kort mellem glæde og sorg.

Hans andakt er undringen ved det å være til, taknemmelighet over kroppens og sansernes og sindets virkelighet i en verden av fabler. Når tanken går mot den store gåde, da blir kanhænde tinden til hans altersten - og det som damper av den er ikke blod (skønt den kræver sitt offer iblandt), men nattens stigende tåker gjennemlyst av soloppgangen.

Hidup untuk lebih hidupnya kehidupan

Her er rummelig og bredt, her slår vi oss ned i en grushaug og spiser mat og drikker saft og ligger på ryggen med sprikende knær og røker pipe, mens blikket går lange turer på himmelen med hodet ned.

He (Tomaz Humar) doesn't conform to existing standards; he creates them.

He wasn't a great man, but he had a great life.

hI was following through on the mountain commitment from my younger days, and it's always a nice surprise when the newly minted adult doesn't disown the child he once was.

How easily such a thing can become a mania, how the most normal and sensible of women once this passion to be thin is upon them, can lose completely their sense of balance and proportion and spend years dealing with this madness.

I assure you it's harder to battle human stupidity than to do battle with mountains. Mountains, after all, have holds.

I came to win, came as I always do, in order to justify who I am and what I have become; now I don't even know what that is. The rot inside me, the cancer of desire, feels unbearable, now it knows it won't be sated. There's a malignant discontent in there, and without a climb there will be no peace. When - if - I pass over to normal life I know I will drag this feeling with me.

If you ignore the mountain, doesn't mean mountain will ignore you too..

If you are looking for a career that may induce a myriad of health conditions into you, I can recommend working at the 13,796 feet very high altitude summit of Mauna Kea, Hawaii, USA.

Interviewer: What helps to sustain you while you're climbing? Is there a particular Bible verse, or, song or song verse? Poem maybe? Mekael: That's a good question. Thoughts of my three sons, are my constant companions. Thoughts of them, help to keep me focused. As for other sources of inspiration....I'm a music lover. I think all Mountaineers and Poets are music lovers, so, when I'm climbing, I'm either in a Tupac zone, or I may be in a Linkin Park or Creed zone. Interviewer: Any song or verse in particular? Mekael: When during a climb, everything has aligned, Creed's 'Higher' pops into my head. I dig the part in the chorus when they sing..... 'Up high I feel like I'm, alive for the, very first time Set up high, I'm strong enough To take these dreams And make them mine

If you're not moving, you're standing still.

I just love all this,' Walt says. 'The sights, the smells, making the effort and pushing yourself and getting something that's really hard to get. I'll fly on a plane and people will look out the window at thirty thousand feet and say, 'Isn't this view good enough for you?' And I say no, it's not good enough. I didn't earn it. In the mountains, I earn it.

In a civilization of wage slaves, where people seek to survive more than to live, mountaineering is an enigma.

Inner harmony is the prerequisite for any climber who seeks to push the frontiers; without it he should give up extreme mountaineering. -Reinhold Messner

It's not dying that is the problem, he said. 'Climbing is like a lover, and your wife knows this. Whenever you are together, no matter how much you love your family, your thoughts are only of your lover, of climbing.

... I only know that when physical and emotional reserves remain unchallenged, this feeds the spiritual cancer of a life unfulfilled. -Reinhold Messner

It's a tough lesson: There is no summit that comes before you expect it.

I realized during the research of High Altitude Observatory Disease (HAOD) that the outcome would be bad for not only astronomy, but for Space, airlines, frequent fliers, sky divers, mountaineering, ski resorts, high altitude cities, military, insurance, and so on.

It is said that a man is rejuvenated every seven years- that all his cells are replaced. I wonder, does that also apply to his spirit? - Reinhold Messner

It was during my first expedition on Everest, that I first experienced the Puja. The word Puja is a Sanskrit word, Pūjā, and it means, "The worship of a particular God or Goddess." In our case, our Puja was in honor of Sagarmatha. Sagarmatha is the Nepalese name for Everest. We were beseeching her, asking her for not just a safe climb, but thanking her for allowing us an audience. Not trying to sound clichéd, but it was a transcendently beautiful experience.

I was born to live, in pursuit of the penultimate high. I am guaranteed a Homeric death, when it's my time to die.

Men hensigten, spør folket, meningen, maalet? Der er ingen hensigt, der er intet maal. Tindesporten er meningsløs som selve livet, - derfor kan dens trolddom aldrig dø.

Mountaineers are one of the few groups to celebrate before the finish line. More mountaineers die on the descent than on the ascent.

[M]ountaineering as a sport both emanates from and addresses itself back to (and back against) the normal patterns of middle class life. One of the dominant discourses of mountaineering [...] positions it critically against "bourgeois" existence, even as the sport demands the resources made possible by such an existence.

Mountains are both journey and destination. They summon us to climb their slopes, explore their canyons, and attempt their summits. The summit, despite months of preparation and toil, is never guaranteed though tastes of sweet nectar when reached. If my only goal as a teacher and mountaineer is the summit, I risk cruel failure if I do not reach the highest apex. Instead, if I accept the mountain’s invitation to journey and create meaning in each step, success is manifest in every moment.

Mind over matter. If you don't mind, it doesn't matter.

Mountains are for me, a conservatory. It's there, that I am able to exist in the presence of transcendent sentient and symbiotic beings. From the mountains to the flora and fauna that lives on the mountains, I am both an awed witness to, and a humble beneficiary of their sprits. Sprits which are filled with life enriching light.

- og nu er det jeg som står og blir liten på den siste krumning i hyldens blygt hendøende motiv.-Drømmer jeg? Er dette et skridt på en jordisk menneskevei? Kan det være en fjeldvægg, en stivnet form, denne foss av gulgrått sva, dette Niagara i sten, som med lydløs torden styrter sig ned over kanten og smelder i skogen efter et eneste sopende sveip på nærmere tusen meter?

No single mountain ever came to me... so I always go to them

Og har han i Kroppen den rigtige Aand, han løfter den staalblanke Ven i sin Haand og klapper ham under hans Hage. O lifligt at skrives i Klatrernes Laug! De Piger og Karle, som dandse paa Flaug ved Sommer har lystelig' Dage.

Og er ikke klippen sin tilbedelse værd? Prøver den ikke hjerte og nyrer før den gir plas for de utvalgte?

... one of the most decisive factors enduring a borderline situation is the WILL TO SURVIVE. -Reinhold Messner

One of the differences between us was that Marc wanted very badly to climb the Eiger, while I wanted very badly only to have climbed the Eiger. Marc, understand, is at that age when the pituitary secretes an overabundance of those hormones that mask the subtler emotions, such as fear. He tends to confuse things like life-or-death climbing with fun.

Profound silence would brood over the valley, even weighing down our spirits with indefinable heaviness. There can be no other place in the world where man feels himself so alone, so isolated, so completely ignored by nature, so incapable of entering into communion with her

Only secrets can be conquered'- most of all the secrets that lie within ourselves.

Som skodden skapes, ændres og forsvinder - slik skummer også livsformerne for fjeldets fot. Det er ikke menneskealdre Stetinden har skuet ned på fra sin ensomme høide, men jordaldre.

Så kastet jeg mig over Turistforeningens Årbøker og slukte hvad jeg fandt om klatring. Horunger, nåler og Djævleskar! Store Gud!

Se i mig en 96 graders venn.

The altimeter had been damaged along the way, but the few bottles that we brought along to wash down the ordinary expedition rations were fine. True, a bottle gives only a vague indication of altitude, but can you drink an altimeter?