George Leigh Mallory Quotes

- Why do you want to climb Mt. Everest, Sir? - Because it is there.

You want to climb the mountain because it’s there and you know you can do it.

Not to be too grandiose about it, but in a way I see myself like Sir Edmund Hillary. The water was my Everest.

I saw a mountain. I wanted to climb it.

Because it is there [famous explanation for wanting to climb Mount Everest].

Meeting Australian mountaineer and author Tim Macartney-Snape when I was 16 in 1994 had a big impact on me. His ascent of Everest from sea to summit captured my imagination.

The experienced mountain climber is not intimidated by a mountain - he is inspired by it.

Some day I'm going to climb Everest.

While on top of Everest, I looked across the valley towards the great peak Makalu and mentally worked out a route about how it could be climbed. It showed me that even though I was standing on top of the world, it wasn't the end of everything. I was still looking beyond to other interesting challenges.

I act because I have to, because I need to find out whether I can do it or not - that's what drives me and excites me and lights me up.

I'm the sort of person who needs a big mountain in front of me to climb.

Why climb? That's a question that baffles me. It perplexes me. I really asked that a lot on Everest. I can't justify it. I can't say it's for a good cause. All I can say is look at the history of exploration: it's full of vainglorious pursuits.

It's like a living process. You start out, and you see the Eiger north face, and you think, 'That's impossible.' Then you start to dream. Then you climb the Eiger north face. Then maybe you go to the Himalaya.

Men climb mountains, scale heights, venture into the unexplored to prove to other men it can be done.

The art of climbing is the art of survival. The best climber is the man or woman going in the most crazy places but surviving.

I became famous for the fact that I would break many, many limits. People said, 'He does all these crazy things.' But oddly it was a crazy thing only because scientists and climbers said, 'Everest and the 8,000-meter peaks without oxygen - impossible. Messner is becoming sick in his head.'

I'm never going to go and test myself on Everest, but I sort of understand the psychology of people who might want to.

There is no joy involved in climbing mountains, there is simply the challenge, the self-invented challenge, the play.

There are parallels between filmmaking and climbing mountains just in terms of the commitment it requires, absolute devotion, and the belief that you are going to make a film and that the film is going to be OK, as well as the risks you have to take. You are never going to climb anything great if you don't take risks.

I never was content unless I was trying my skill...or testing my endurance.

You soon realize that the peak you've climbed was one of the lowest, that the mountain was part of a chain of mountains, that there are still so many, so many mountains to climb...And the more you climb, the more you want to climb - even though you're dead tired.

You won't find reasonable men on the tops of tall mountains.

Climbing is unadulterated hard labor. The only real pleasure is the satisfaction of going where no man has been before and where few can follow.

I wanted something different; I wanted something that challenged me and that pushed me further. Then this idea of climbing Mount Everest came to my mind. It stuck in my head for days. Someone told me I couldn't do it, and that really annoyed me.

I'm always looking for the next challenge.