I was definitely seriously affected [with wifw and daughter deaths], no question, but I learnt to devote myself to the things that we'd been doing for years and years and slowly the pain drifted away.

My mother was a schoolteacher and very keen that I go to a city school, so although it was fairly impoverished times, I traveled every day to the Auckland Grammar School.

Human life is far more important than just getting to the top of a mountain.

Once I've decided to do something, I do usually try to carry it through to fruition.

No one remembers who climbed Mount Everest the second time.

I have to admit I do get a bit depressed at times and you know I think about the good old days when I was charging ahead.

I think the whole attitude towards climbing Mount Everest has become rather horrifying. The people just want to get to the top. They don't give a damn for anybody else who may be in distress and it doesn't impress me at all that they leave someone lying under a rock to die.