I found fear stimulating. Particularly after you've done something that you'd been frightened of at the time, but you carried through and did the job.

I like to think of Everest as a great mountaineering challenge, and when you've got people just streaming up the mountain - well, many of them are just climbing it to get their name in the paper, really.

The Sherpas play a very important role in most mountaineering expeditions, and in fact many of them lead along the ridges and up to the summit.

When you go to the mountains, you see them and you admire them. In a sense, they give you a challenge, and you try to express that challenge by climbing them.

Strong motivation is the most important factor in getting you to the top

People do not decide to become extraordinary. They decide to accomplish extraordinary things.

It's not a real adventure when you have to pay for it.