great climbing quotes

[knotzen]

Came across this in a reread of "Annapurna," by Maurice Herzog:

 

"That wonderful world of high mountains, dazzling in their rock and ice, acts as a catalyst. It suggests the infinite, but it is not the infinite. The heights only give us what we ourselves bring to them. Climbing is a means of self-expression. Its justification lies in the men it develops, its heroes and its saints."

[MarkMcJizzy]

Dave Anderson told me once, on an attempt of the North Norwegian Buttress, that Don Harder said:

 

"I don't know about you fuckers, but I'm going down"

 

Any truth to this Don?

 

[ivan]

i like quoting myself - to layton while leading pitch 5 on free lunch this past weekend as he was making some angry, grumpy noises:

 

"dude - is this a freakout?"

[G-spotter]

"This fucking fucker is fucking fucked!" - climbing partner of Greg Child describing broken ice axe, as reported in essay "The Disgusting Mountains"

[rob]

"My father considered a walk among the mountains as the equivalent of churchgoing." -- Aldous Huxley

[Sherri]

"You mean we could have just walked to the top?!" Spoken by a nervous friend after her first climb, when she realized there was a walk-off.

 

 

[ScottP]

"Gee, in the old days people used aid to make things easier, nowadays they use aid to make things harder." — Juanita Donini.

[knotzen]

Me, approaching the summit ridge of Ruby Mountain in NCNP, on the second day of bushwhacking: "I can't wait to get to the summit!!"

 

My climbing buddy: "You don't have to wait to get to the summit; you just have to walk to get to the summit."

 

[sk]

Bev something (can't recall her last name) was on a TV show with Lynn Hill and said:

 

"It's not about hte 5.10's you've led, it's about the 5.10 leaders you've laid."

 

I love that quote

[NTM]

"Good weather, bad weather, now later. Any time is good for climbing."

[sk]

Texplorer:

 

"I may smell bad, But I don't smell THAT bad."

 

"I wish I would have brought my nuts!"

 

"a bad day climbing is better than a good day doing anything else."

 

 

[Dechristo]

Upon reaching the summit of Serra V for the fifth ascent and discovering no writing implement in the summit registry, my partner, Syudla, asked, "do you have a pencil in your pocket?"

[crazy_t]

"Don't fall now or we'll both go!"

 

"Perhaps I should take this lead?"

 

— Layton Kor on numerous occasions.

 

"- You guys going up ? - Yes, yes, we go up.. - You may be going a lot higher than you think!" - Don Whillans, to a Japanese party, while descending the Eiger

[crazy_t]

can't find the quote, but I think it was from Bonington (or Whillans) at Everest base camp?

 

Some Germans camped nearby were listening to/heard about a German victory over England in the World Cup. They cockily saunter over to the English camp, and announce "It seems that we've beaten you at your national sport!" And Bonington/Whillans answers, without skipping a beat "And we've beaten you twice at yours..."

 

[ScottP]

Texplorer:

 

"I may smell bad, But I don't smell THAT bad."

 

(snip)

 

"Climbers don't have a sense of smell"

Conrad Anker's mother

[archenemy]

"Oh shit"

-me

 

and

 

"Sometimes the only way down is up"

-not me

 

[KaskadskyjKozak]

 

"It doesn't have to be fun to be fun"

[Dechristo]

"we could be off-route"

[NTM]

TAAAAAAAAKKKKKKEEEEEE!

[bstach]

"The best climber is the one having the most fun" - teh interweb

[iceaxedave]

"Good weather, bad weather, now later. Any time is good for climbing."

 

From "The Eiger Sanction" starring Clint Eastwood. As true in 1975 as it is today. Now I'll have to go and re-watch it tonight.

[bstach]

"Good weather, bad weather, now later. Any time is good for climbing."

 

From "The Eiger Sanction" starring Clint Eastwood. As true in 1975 as it is today. Now I'll have to go and re-watch it tonight.

 

"Jonathan Hemlock: I can't believe that you're a stewardess.

Jemima Brown: Actually I'm not, I'm a skyjacker in a drag.

Jonathan Hemlock: Oh, that's reassuring, just give your name and I report you to the proper authorities when we land.

Jemima Brown: Jemima

Jonathan Hemlock: And I'm Uncle Ben...

Jemima Brown: I'm serious, that's really my name... Jemima Brown, my mother was hooked on being ethnic.

Jonathan Hemlock: Or else turned on by a pancake. As long as we both agree that it's to much for a black chick to have the name of Jemima. "

 

I Jemima Brown

[Weekend_Climberz]

Continually question climbing pursuits. Do they draw one back to the climbing community? Or do they lead along the [inner] path? This questioning generates a tension that is heightened by disillusionment. Ultimately, one reaches an emptiness, and this is where our basic spontaneous nature leads to the beginning of the path...Thereafter one can continually stand apart from the outer world of climbing, yet at times be fiercely involved in it. Philosophical and mystical dimensions emerge when the two worlds are brought together.

 

Words to live by :tup:

[ivan]

my email signature, from lionel terray:

 

"Philistines may think that we were madmen indeed to go through such suffering and danger to arrive at this lonely spot. What did you hope to find there, they may ask. Glory? Nobody cares about young fools who waste their best years in meaningless combats far from the eyes of the world. Fortune? Our clothes were in rags and next day we would go back down to a life of slaving for the barest essentials. What we sought was the unbounded and essential joy that boils in the heart and penetrates every fibre of our being when, after long hours skirting the borders of death, we can again hug life to us with all our strength. Nietzsche defined it thus: `The secret of knowing the most fertile experiences and the greatest joys in life is to live dangerously.'"

[Dechristo]

...or, as a blind, deaf, mute wrote, "life is a daring adventure or nothing at all."