Environmental problems are really social problems anyway. They begin with people as the cause and end with people as the victims

Many people have been getting too casual about climbing Everest. I forecast a disaster many times.

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.

I'm sure the feeling of fear, as long as you can take advantage of it and not be rendered useless by it, can make you extend yourself beyond what you would regard as your capacity. If you're afraid, the blood seems to flow freely through the veins, and you really do feel a sense of stimulation.

Challenge is what makes men. It will be the end when men stop looking for new challenges.

My relationship with the mountains actually started when I was 16. Every year, a group used to be taken from Auckland Grammar down to the Tangariro National Park for a skiing holiday.

Life's a bit like mountaineering - never look down.