The real, in all this efforts, is that we climb just for climbing.
Everest in his slippers. That's what he was like.
There is such a gauntlet of risk that you go through when you climb up to Everest.
When you're climbing Mount Everest, nothing is easy. You just take one step at a time, never look back and always keep your eyes glued to the top.
I saw a mountain. I wanted to climb it.
Yes, I first visited Korphe village, Braldu valley, Baltistan, Pakistan, after failing to summit K2 in 1993, and met Haji Ali, a long time dear mentor and friend. My second visit to Korphe was in 1994.
I've always been a big fan of the Yeti, simply because I have an affiliation to Everest - who was the New Zealander, Sir Edmund Hillary, the guy that conquered it. He actually went on an expedition after the Everest climb to look for the Yeti, and they didn't find it, but they found a footprint and some hair samples that turned out to be a goat or something.
Rob Hall was, without doubt, the most competent guide in mountaineering.
Who wouldn't be a mountaineer! Up here all the world's prizes seem nothing
Gradually, very gradually, we saw the great mountain sides and glaciers and aretes, now one fragment and now another through the floating rifts, until far higher in the sky than imagination had dared to suggest the white summit of Everest appeared.
I needed to go . . . the pull of Everest was stronger for me than any force on earth.
I've often thought about that and the only suitable member to join me on that climb [to Everest] was George Lowe: he was strong, a good man on a mountain, with a great sense of humour, and I liked that. I think George and I could've done that together ... I've probably never told George that.
