Bear Grylls Quote

Since we were on Everest, many other climbers have succeeded on the big one as well. She has now been scaled by a blind man, a guy with prosthetic legs, and even by a young Nepalese teenager.Don’t be fooled, though. I never belittle the mountain. She is still just as high and just as dangerous. Instead, I admire those mountaineers--however they have climbed her. I know what it is really like up there.Humans learn how to dominate and conquer. It is what we do. But the mountain remains the same--and sometimes she turns and bites so damn hard that we all recoil in terror.For a while.Then we return. Like vultures. But we are never in charge.It is why, within Nepal, Everest is known as the mother goddess of the sky--lest we forget.This name reflects the respect the Nepalese have for the mountain, and this respect is the greatest lesson you can learn as a climber. You climb only because the mountain allows it.If the peak hints at you to wait, then you must wait; and when she begins to beckon you to go then you must struggle and strain in the thin air with all your might.The weather can change in minutes, as storm clouds envelop the peak--and the summit itself stubbornly pokes into the fierce band of jet-stream winds that circle the earth above twenty-five thousand feet. These 150+ mph winds cause the majestic plume of snow that pours off Everest’s peak.A constant reminder that you have got to respect the mountain.Or you die.