The explorers of the past were great men and we should honour them. But let us not forget that their spirit lives on. It is still not hard to find a man who will adventure for the sake of a dream or one who will search, for the pleasure of searching, not for what he may find.
Challenge is what makes men. It will be the end when men stop looking for new challenges.
I think it all comes down to motivation. If you really want to do something, you will work hard for it.
You climb for the hell of it.
Nothing can replace courage, a resounding motivation and that little bit of luck.
I have discovered that even the mediocre can have adventures and even the fearful can achieve.
As a youngster I was a great dreamer, reading many books of adventure and walking lonely miles with my head in the clouds.
I think the really good mountaineer is the man with the technical ability of the professional and with the enthusiasm and freshness of approach of the amateur.
I have been seriously afraid at times but have used my fear as a stimulating factor rather than allowing it to paralyse me. My abilities have not been outstanding, but I have had sufficient strength and determination to meet my challenges and have usually managed to succeed with them.
No one remembers who climbed Mount Everest the second time.
It’s not a real adventure when you have to pay for it.
My relationship with the mountains actually started when I was 16. Every year, a group used to be taken from Auckland Grammar down to the Tangariro National Park for a skiing holiday.
It was wrong if there was a man suffering altitude problems and was huddled under a rock, just to lift your hat, say ‘good morning’ and pass on by, he said. Human life is far more important than just getting to the top of a mountain.
I really haven’t liked the commercialization of mountaineering, particularly of Mt. Everest. By paying $65,000, you can be conducted to the summit by a couple of good guides.
Despite all I have seen and experiences, I still get the same thrill out of glimpsing a tiny patch of snow in a high mountain gully and feel the same urge to climb toward it.
I’ve always hated the danger part of climbing, and it’s great to come down again because it’s safe.
My mother was a schoolteacher and very keen that I go to a city school, so although it was fairly impoverished times, I traveled every day to the Auckland Grammar School.
Nobody climbs mountains for scientific reasons. Science is used to raise money for the expeditions, but you really climb for the hell of it.
On the summit of Everest, I had a feeling of great satisfaction to be first there.
I don’t spend a lot of time thinking about dying, but I like to think that I’ve – if it did occur – that I would die peacefully and not make too much of a fuss about it.