I've always hated the danger part of climbing, and it's great to come down again because it's safe.

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.

No one remembers who climbed Mount Everest the second time.

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

As a youngster I was a great dreamer, reading many books of adventure and walking lonely miles with my head in the clouds.

I have discovered that even the mediocre can have adventures and even the fearful can achieve.

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.