Steve Fossett Quotes

I'm kind of obsessed by Everest and all those men that mountaineer and take themselves to extreme limits.

The mission of professional mountain climbers is almost impossibly difficult by design: Their very livelihood is based on achieving the unprecedented. Their expeditions are complicated, exhausting, often life-threatening. Risk is the fuel that keeps them going.

I was scared many times on Everest, but this is all part of the challenge. When I fell down a crevasse, it was pretty scary.

The way to Everest is not a Yellow Brick Road.

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.

When I took on Everest, I'm not there for the views.

The cinematography and the conditions in which 'Meru' was filmed drew me to the project. It's remarkable to think that everything in the film is real; these three men set out to attempt this impossible climb and to film it at the same time.

I always wanted to try Mt. Everest since I was a kid. I never thought I would be able to do anything like that.

I do not climb really dangerous stuff.

We look up. For weeks, for months, that is all we have done. Look up. And there it is-the top of Everest. Only it is different now: so near, so close, only a little more than a thousand feet above us. It is no longer just a dream, a high dream in the sky, but a real and solid thing, a thing of rock and snow, that men can climb. We make ready. We will climb it. This time, with God's help, we will climb on to the end.

There is such a gauntlet of risk that you go through when you climb up to Everest.

I like to think of Everest as a great mountaineering challenge, and when you've got people just streaming up the mountain - well, many of them are just climbing it to get their name in the paper, really.

I climb mountains.

Mountaineering is one of the most difficult sports - we are away from routine life for days, living in tents, and it requires high degree of physical and mental strength.

On the summit of Everest, I had a feeling of great satisfaction to be first there.

I want to ski down Mount Cho Oyu in the Himalayas when I am 85, descending from a height of 8,201 meters.

The Sherpas play a very important role in most mountaineering expeditions, and in fact many of them lead along the ridges and up to the summit.

I see myself being married to my girlfriend and backpacking all over the world. If I can go out and do a 15-mile hike and climb a 12,000-ft. peak, I'm good to go.

Big climbs energize me. It's all the other aspects of being a pro-climber that wear me down. The travel and expeditions and training can become pretty tiring. But the actual big climbs - that's what I live for.

I used to climb mountains a lot; I decided to go to Pakistan to climb K2, the world's second-highest mountain. I didn't get quite to the top.

I have climbed Everest from the Nepal route and the China route. The other routes are too hard for me. So I don't think I can climb Everest again.

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.

Right now, I'm just focused on the 8,000-meter peaks. I don't know what's next. I don't think I will get tired of climbing.

There are three elements of mountaineering - difficulty, danger, and exposure. Difficulty is the technical aspect of it. Danger, it is best to avoid, but some people like to increase danger to a point where their success is dependent only on luck. And exposure, which is what truly defines Alpinism, is what you face in wild nature.

I joined 'Meru' midstream after my co-director Jimmy Chin had already filmed the 2008 and 2011 climbs.