No Shortcuts to the Top Quotes

“Getting to the top is optional. Getting down is mandatory.”
― Ed Viesturs, No Shortcuts to the Top: Climbing the World's 14 Highest Peaks

“Mind over matter. If you don't mind, it doesn't matter.”
― Ed Viesturs, No Shortcuts to the Top: Climbing the World's 14 Highest Peaks

“Dreams are not made to put us to sleep, but to awaken us.”
― Ed Viesturs, No Shortcuts to the Top: Climbing the World's 14 Highest Peaks

“Every person has his or her own Annapurna.” I go on to explain that there were many Annapurnas in my life—challenges I wasn’t sure I could meet—but that “the real Annapurna was my last one.” For each of you out there, your Annapurna might be a tough project at work, a bad illness, or the breakup of a marriage, but the trick is to find a way of converting adversity into something positive, a challenge to look forward to.”
― Ed Viesturs, No Shortcuts to the Top: Climbing the World's 14 Highest Peaks

“there is nothing else in life like getting to the summit. What’s more, I’ve always felt that the greater the challenge, the greater the reward.”
― Ed Viesturs, No Shortcuts to the Top: Climbing the World's 14 Highest Peaks

“No matter what the future holds in store, I can say now—out loud, without hesitation—something that, sadly, all too few men and women can ever say: I have lived my dream.”
― Ed Viesturs, No Shortcuts to the Top: Climbing the World's 14 Highest Peaks

“Your instincts are telling you something. Trust them and listen to them.”
― Ed Viesturs, No Shortcuts to the Top: Climbing the World's 14 Highest Peaks

“Safety is first; fun is second; success is third.”
― Ed Viesturs, No Shortcuts to the Top: Climbing the World's 14 Highest Peaks

“The famous last line of Herzog’s book is “There are other Annapurnas in the lives of men.”
― Ed Viesturs, No Shortcuts to the Top: Climbing the World's 14 Highest Peaks

“What drives my life is not the desire to get along with other people or make friends so much as a moral obligation to give back as much as—no, more than—I take. That’s karma. It’s really not so far from the Golden Rule: “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” Some”
― Ed Viesturs, No Shortcuts to the Top: Climbing the World's 14 Highest Peaks

“A great climb is a wonderful mixture of difficulty and intimacy.”
― Ed Viesturs, No Shortcuts to the Top: Climbing the World's 14 Highest Peaks

“Just because you love the mountains doesn’t mean the mountains love you.”
― Ed Viesturs, No Shortcuts to the Top: Climbing the World's 14 Highest Peaks

“I’ll go even further and say that competitiveness in mountaineering is wrong. It’s dangerous. Climbing should be personally motivated.”
― Ed Viesturs, No Shortcuts to the Top: Climbing the World's 14 Highest Peaks

“We stopped in our tracks. I said, “Man, let’s not get ourselves killed doing this. Let’s discuss this.” Scott sat down facing out, looking down at me. I figured, if a big spindrift slide comes down now, we’re going to get washed off the face.”
― Ed Viesturs, No Shortcuts to the Top: Climbing the World's 14 Highest Peaks

“a simple but stark criterion: the number of climbers who successfully reach the summit compared to the number who die on the mountain. For Everest, the ratio turns out to be seven to one. For K2, which has the reputation of being the hardest and most dangerous of the high peaks, the ratio is a little over three to one. But for Annapurna, it’s exactly two to one. For every two climbers who get to the top, one climber dies trying.”
― Ed Viesturs, No Shortcuts to the Top: Climbing the World's 14 Highest Peaks

“Viewed as a whole, climbing all fourteen 8,000ers would have seemed almost impossible, but I took it one day at a time, one step at a time. I was passionate about what I did, and I never gave up. “Whatever challenge you have before you can be accomplished in the same fashion—whether it takes a week, two months, or a year. If you look at the challenge as a whole, it may seem insuperable, but if you break it down into tangible steps, it can seem more reasonable, and ultimately achievable.” The model for that strategy comes from the way I learned to break up the “impossible” 4,000-foot climb to a summit into tiny, manageable pieces: just get to that rock outcrop there, then focus on the ice block up ahead, and so on. For”
― Ed Viesturs, No Shortcuts to the Top: Climbing the World's 14 Highest Peaks

“Although I remain uncertain about God or any particular religion, I believe in karma. What goes around, comes around. How you live your life, the respect that you give others and the mountain, and how you treat people in general will come back to you in kindred fashion. I like to talk about what I call the Karma National Bank. If you give up the summit to help rescue someone who’s in trouble, you’ve put a deposit in that bank. And sometime down the road, you may need to make a big withdrawal. People”
― Ed Viesturs, No Shortcuts to the Top: Climbing the World's 14 Highest Peaks

“Getting to the top is optional. Getting down is mandatory.”
― Ed Viesturs, No Shortcuts to the Top: Climbing the World's 14 Highest Peaks