He was unheeded, happy, and near to the wild heart of life. He was alone and young and wilful and wildhearted, alone amid a waste of wild air and brackish waters and the seaharvest of shells and tangle and veiled grey sunlight.
Jon KrakauerSometimes he tried too hard to make sense of the world, to figure out why people were bad to each other so often.
Jon KrakauerMr. Franz, I think careers are a 20th Century invention and I don't want one. You donโt need to worry about me; I have a college education. Iโm not destitute. I'm living like this by choice.
Jon KrakauerThis forms the nub of a dilemna that every Everest climber eventually comes up against: in order to succeed you must be exceedingly driven, but if you're too driven you're likely to die.
Jon KrakauerAbove the comforts of Base Camp, the expedition in fact became an almost Calvinistic undertaking. The ratio of misery to pleasure was greater by an order of magnitude than any mountain I'd been on; I quickly came to understand that climbing Everest was primarily about enduring pain. And in subjecting ourselves to week after week of toil, tedium and suffering, it struck me that most of us were probably seeking above all else, something like a state of grace.
Jon Krakauer