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.

I did have my moments of despair. It was certainly not - it's not an experience I would like to have again. And then June came along.

With practice and focus, you can extend yourself far more than you ever believed possible.

It's all bullshit on Everest these days.

I had never experienced anything like it before and I don't think I have experienced anything like it since [on Ruapehu]. It was my dreams coming true in a way, and from there on I tended to become more of a doer than a dreamer.

Nobody climbs mountains for scientific reasons. Science is used to raise money for the expeditions, but you really climb for the hell of it.

I get older I get more cantankerous, but June [Hillary] gets a bit more cantankerous, too.