Alpinism, in a sentence.

Got a favorite quote? How come you like it?

Found a new one in Alpinist 34 I thought was great. It rings true to me as I try to keep pushing myself further in onsight, ground up climbing. An admitted planner with a perfectionist streak, onsight climbing pushes my comfort level every time but I fight harder for an onsight than anything.

"The smallest piece of prior information alters even the fundamental characteristics of a climb." - Katsutaka Yokoyama

"Nuts!" General Anthony McAuliffe.

wandering aimlessly away from the beer cooler and good lookng ladies...

I think it was Jean Affanseif, via Bridwell-

"This is the Fukkin' life, No ? "

"Alpinism is fucking war"

-Mark Twight

"If the answer was 13 RURP's and a Bat Hook, what was the question?"

- Just because it makes me dream, what kind of awesome route can take 13 RURP's and a Bat hook?

" Climb Now, Work Later!"

- I try to live by this all day e'ryday...sometimes it turns out badly.

Climb on!

-Mac

For those who Climb for their turns:

"Powder snow skiing is not fun. It’s life, fully lived, life lived in a blaze of reality. What we experience in powder is the original human self, which lies deeply inside each of us, still undamaged in spite of what our present culture tries to do to us. Once experienced, this kind of living is recognized as the only way to live–fully aware of the earth and the sky and the gods and you, the mortal, playing among them."

Dolores LaChapelle

"Kiss or Kill"

I have no idea what that's supposed to mean, but it makes me laugh every time I think about it.

Of what use are extreme faces? It is within that we find the most insurmountable barriers. We shall not find the seventh grade beyond the sixth, but in ourselves.
- Ivan Ghirardini, The Shroud Solo

Vy can't ve chust climb?
-John Salathe

He who climbs upon the highest mountains laughs at all tragedies, real or imaginary.
- Friedrich Nietzsche, Thus Spake Zarathustra

Well could I curse away a winter's night,
Though standing naked on a mountain top,
Where biting cold would never let grass grow,
And think it but a minute spent in sport.
- William Shakespeare
2 King Henry VI, Act III, Scene II

What are you
That fly me thus? some villain mountaineers?
I have heard of such. What slave art thou?
- William Shakespeare
Cymbeline, Act IV, Scene II

Mountains are not fair or unfair -- they are just dangerous.
- Reinhold Messner

We do not deceive ourselves that we are engaging in an activity that is anything but debilitating, dangerous, eurphoric, kinesthetic, expensive, frivolously essential, economically useless and totally without redeeming social significance. One should not probe for deeper meanings.
- Allen Steck, 1967

I've always been partial to this one: The great Frank Sacherer replies to a young Eric Beck, just after the latter asked the leader to place more protection, "Shut up, you chicken-shit!"

“There are only three sports: bullfighting, motor racing, and mountaineering; all the rest are merely games.” Ernest Hemingway.

Oh, and I read that Mallory's "because it's there" was a grouchy response to a reporter who kept bugging him. When first asked why he climbed, he responded "to struggle and to understand".

"If you're having fun, you're not trying hard enough." Mark Twight

"The most inefficient way to get back to the car"

Not sure who its by... I think I heard it from Plesko.

Some hardcore climber once told me- "Youre either a recovering alpinist or a recovering alchoholic." You choose.

Nice one, it makes me want to onsite more, to bad everything still looks easy to me from the ground. (Thank God for guide books and grades!) That ones mine.

Because it's there.
The best climber is the one having the most fun.

Those are some of my favorites, forget who though.

Brian Snider wrote: Because it's there. The best climber is the one having the most fun. Those are some of my favorites, forget who though.

"Getting to the top by the most interesting route possible." - me

SUFFERING &

SHORT TERM MEMORY LOSS.............

Cause you forgot how much you suffered the last time

“Getting to the top is optional, but getting down is mandatory. A lot of people get focused on the summit and forget that.”
~Ed Viesturs

Simple yet true. There have been many times when getting up was fine, but getting down was the crux.

"Do or do not, there is no try" -Yoda J.M.