My most important projects have been the building and maintaining of schools and medical clinics for my dear friends in the Himalaya and helping restore their beautiful monasteries, too.

When you're climbing at high altitudes, life can get pretty miserable.

Adventuring can be for the ordinary person with ordinary qualities, such as I regard myself.

I hate being called an 'icon.' I just don't like it. That's all there is to it.

I have a number of heroes I still have warm feelings about. [Derek] Shackleton, for instance, was definitely, and still is, one of my great heroes.

My mother really was the strength in our family. She would sort of keep us in line and I admired her very much .

I think global warming is a very real problem for our world. I've seen the changes that have taken place in the Antarctic, in the Himalayas, where the natural ice has sort of faded away, and there's no doubt in my mind that we're living in a strange world, a world which is not easy to understand or handle, But there's nothing you can do about, you just have to live your life as best you can.