May your boulders be your blessings. May you be able to embrace them. And may you find what's extraordinary in yourself.

When I climb a fourteener, a 14,000-foot/4,260-meter peak, in the winter by myself, I leave an itinerary and information about where my vehicle will be parked and the name of the county sheriff to contact in case I don't get home.

What you're looking at there is my arm, going into the rock... and there it is, stuck. It's been without circulation for twenty-four hours. It's pretty well gone.

Adversity is the source of our deepest growth and greatest blessings; embrace it, dare to seek it.

I certainly made mistakes.

We are not grand because we are at the top of the food chain or because we can alter our environment - the environment will outlast us with its unfathomable forces and unyielding powers. But rather than be bound and defeated by our insignificance, we are bold because we exercise our will anyway, despite the ephemeral and delicate presence we have in this desert, on this planet, in this universe.

I was accustomed to being in far, far riskier environments. So I thought going into that canyon was a walk in the park - there were no avalanches, it was a beautiful day and I was essentially just walking.