You can’t coach desire, and no matter how fancy your training plan or how high your stated goals are, it comes down to getting out the door and doing the work day after day.

You will never exploit your full technical capacity if your fitness remains a weak link.

The simpler we make things, the richer the experiences become.

On big routes in big mountains, speed equals safety.

Climbers are a universal tribe: we share the knowledge that things are not important. Experience is important. Feeling is important.

I can respect the gulf that separates alpinism from a running race and still appreciate that the physiology that accounts for endurance is the same if you are running a foot race in the city park or front pointing up the second ice field on the north face of the Eiger.

Within alpinism's narrow framework we seek transcendence and relentlessly pursue what remains hidden from us on flat ground: our true selves.