This year my role is clear: I am a coach, a coach to sportsmen.

I am not sure the others are as committed as Rob Hall and Scott Fischer. I think there is more business now, and I know it will be impossible to stop this Everest business.

I cannot say to be glad or not glad to be on Everest. It is my life. I have opportunity to be here, so I am here.

People respected my experience, they hire me, they pay me what I am worth to coach their team.

Climbing is what I do.

Honestly, I do not experience fear in the mountains. On the contraryI feel my shoulders straightening, squaring, like the birds as they straighten their wings. I enjoy the freedom and the altitude. It is only when I return to life below that I feel the world's weight on my shoulders.

Mountains are not stadiums where I satisfy my ambition to achieve, they are the cathedrals where I practice my religion.