Mountaineering is a complex and unique way of life, interweaving elements of sport, art and mysticism. Success or failure depends on the ebb and flow of immense inspiration. Detecting a single rule governing this energy is difficult - it arises and vanishes like the urge to dance and remains as mysterious as the phenomenon of life itself.

Naturally, the top does not automatically make us better. Like the samurai frequented ordinary cutthroat, so sometimes extreme mountaineer can be self-centered, mythomaniac or crook to each yourself and the environment.

I like to describe Himalayan climbing as a kind of art of suffering. Just pushing, pushing yourself to your limits.

I see one single suitable role for my life's work: for it to be a gift to others.

The man coming back from the hard mountain trip is a wiser being, calmer and radiating inside. I'd say momentary liberated.

Whenever a climber leaves the known paths, he enters an area without rules or routines... The only advice comes from deep inside the self.

The most significant dimension of freedom is the freedom from one's own ego - in other words, from the feeling that I am the center of everything