We can’t always choose our circumstances but we can choose how we respond to what life throws at us, and there is power when we realize our ability to alter our destiny.A life in the wild has taught m...
Success almost always follows great attitude. The two attract each other.
Sir Edmund Hillary, Everest’s first conqueror, once said that the mountains gave him strength. I’d never really understood this until now. But it was intoxicating.Something deep inside me knew that I...
Say why not? rather than why?
Never underestimate the human spirit.And it only takes a tiny ember to start a great fire.
Mum was always so generous to Lara and me growing up, and it helped me develop a very healthy attitude to money. You could never accuse my mum of being tight: she was free, fun, mad, and endlessly giv...
Just under the South Summit I could make out the shape where Rob Hall lay. He had died up here some twenty-four months earlier.His body, half covered in drift-snow, remained unchanged. Frozen in time....
In the end I concluded, nothing ventured, nothing gained. (A vital ethos to follow if life is to have flavor, I have since learned.) I knew I should at least attempt Selection.If I failed, well at lea...
There are always crunch times on a mountain when you have to weigh up the odds for success against the risks of cold, bad weather or avalanche. But in essence the choice is simple - If you risk nothin...
I mean, what does it say about someone if you describe them as a ‘trying’ person? It means they try our patience to the limit!)Somewhere in our brains the word ‘try’ gets associated with phrases like...
You see, we are all a bit like grapes: when you squeeze us, you see what we are made of. And I believe that most people are far stronger than they ever imagine. It is refined within us from thousands...
When my parents were away, I would often be sent to spend the night in the house of an older lady who I didn’t know, and who didn’t seem to know me, either. (I assume it was a friendly neighbor or acq...
Wealthy people so often find that the summit of their mountains - the success that they sought - isn’t enough. And they are right. It isn’t enough to satisfy our deep hunger for meaning and purpose. (...
We were on a family holiday to Cyprus to visit my aunt and uncle. My uncle Andrew was then the brigadier to all the British forces on the island, and as such a senior military figure I am sure he must...
We were now receiving daily very accurate weather reports from the Bracknell Weather Centre in the UK. These gave us the most advanced precision forecast available anywhere in the world. The meteorolo...
We opened the door and looked at each other. Surprised.It was literally like stepping into a deep freeze. Old iron boats are like that in winter. The cold water around them means that, without heating...
This quote from T.E. Lawrence means a lot to me: Our job is to be the dangerous type. The one who dreams by day and acts to make those dreams come alive and actually happen.So take some time to get th...
The infamous South Col awaited me over the top.I longed to see this place I had heard and read so much about. The highest camp in the world at twenty-six thousand feet--deep in Everest’s Death Zone.I...
The final examination came and my mother came down to watch it. She hated watching me fight. (Unlike my school friends, who took a weird pleasure in the fights--and more and more so as I got better.)B...
That night, the tent that I had been alone in for so long was suddenly heaving with bodies, and piles of rope and kit--with Neil, Geoffrey, and Graham squeezed in beside me.I tried to drink as much bo...