I soon learned that Everest wasn't a private affair. It belonged to many men.

I wonder if one can view risk like a drug, beneficial to the organism in the proper dose. Too much or too little may be harmful.

But at times I wondered if I had not come a long way to find that what I really sought was something I had left behind.

Just a rock, a dome of snow, the deep blue sky, and a hunk of orange-painted metal from which a shredded American flag cracked in the wind. Nothing more. Except two tiny figures walking together those last few feet to the top of the Earth.

I soon learned that Everest wasn't a private affair. It belonged to many men.