Because...
“I agree with those who say that <ALPINE> climbing is not life. It is much better than that. In <ALPINE> climbing you get nothing other than what you absolutely deserve. It has no skin color, no gender, no rules that matter, and no lawyers, referees, or pushy parents. You can’t get any more or any less out of <ALPINE> climbing than exactly what you put into it. There are no dead ends in climbing, no barriers other than the ones we impose upon ourselves. The blend of skill, boldness, and desire that each route requires is unique unto itself and yet connected to every other route as if within one long and contiguous passage. Life is hard on dreams, harder on dreamers. <ALPINE> Climbing was built for them . For in <ALPINE> climbing success and failure both lead to the same place, to new resolves and new posssibilities. Life should be so good.”
- Geoff Childs
I think this sentiment is more true (whatever the hell that means) to travelling around on the mountains than anything else.
-Mark