Bear Grylls Quote

For eighteen hours we had neither drunk nor eaten anything. My body and mind both felt strangely distant. Both were aching for some relief.In the porch of our tiny single-skinned tent, I reached out to hug Neil again. Then--unceremoniously--I collapsed.Bear, come on, buddy. You’ve got to get inside the tent properly. Bear, can you hear me? Michael’s voice brought me round. He had been waiting for us at the col--hoping.I shuffled backward into the tent. My head was pounding. I needed to drink. I hadn’t peed for more than twenty-four hours.Neil and Alan were slowly shedding their harnesses. Neither had the energy to speak. Michael passed me a warm drink from the stove. I was so happy to see him and Geoffrey in one piece.As the afternoon turned to evening we talked.I hadn’t really known fully why Michael and Geoffrey had retreated. They told their story. Of the impending storm and their growing fatigue, as they struggled in the deep snow and thin air. Their retreat had been a decision based on sound mountain judgment.A good call. Hence they were alive.We, though, had kept going. That decision had been based on an element of recklessness. But we got lucky, and that storm never came. Daring had won out--this time.It doesn’t always.Knowing when to be reckless and when to be safe is the great mountaineering game. I knew that.Michael turned to me later as we were getting ready for our last night in the Death Zone. He told me something that I have never forgotten. It was the voice of twenty years’ climbing experience in the wild Rockies of Canada.Bear, do you realize the risk you guys were taking up there? It was more recklessness than good judgment, in my opinion. He smiled and looked right at me.My advice: from now on in your life, rein it back a fraction--and you will go far. You’ve survived this time--now go use that good fortune.I have never forgotten those words.