Shattered Air Quotes

“The most important thing is to never give up." Adrian Esteban”
― Bob Madgic, Shattered Air: A True Account of Catastrophe and Courage on Yosemite's Half Dome

“Despite the dangers and discomforts, climbing is for many an all-consuming passion. They interrupt, end, or never start their careers, focusing exclusively on completing the next climb. Climber Todd Skinner said free climbing means "going right to the edge" of your capabilites. For many climbers, this closeness to death - the risk of dying - produces an adrenaline rush that most other life experiences simply can't. It is what keeps many of them married to the sport. Probably no other sport creates such a feeling of oneness with Mother Nature. Attached to a mountainside by fingertips and toes, the climber necessarily becomes part of the rock - or else. One climber says that while scaling a granite face, she felt close to God, so intense was her relationship with the natural world.
Climbers speak of "floating" or "performing a ballet" over the rock, each placement of foot and each reach into a crack creating unity with the mountain. The sport is one of total engagement with the here-and-now, which frees the mind from everything else. Climbers' concentration is complete and focused. Their only thought is executing the next move...
Ken Bokelund... said: "Climbing for me has always been the strength of the body over the weakness of the mind. If you train so that you are very strong physically and you have mastered the techniques, then all that's left is believing. Freeing your mind of fear is the key. This is very difficult to do, but when you can achieve it, then you are in true harmony with the rock. Fear is just one more thing to worry about and is very distracting. It can make you fall...
...when you know you are strong enough to complete any maneuver, once that level of physical confidence is achieved, then you are able to put fear out of your mind. Climbing becomes a very simple pleasure. It's just you and the rock. It's a total clarity of being, a time when nothing matters, you're moving without any thought, you're in a place where time stands still. Even when you're on a wall for days, when you get down, everything seems exactly the same, as though time never passed.”
― Bob Madgic, Shattered Air: A True Account of Catastrophe and Courage on Yosemite's Half Dome

“LIGHTNING CAN DEVASTATE a human being. Except for floods, it kills more people in the United States annually than any other weather event.”
― Bob Madgic, Shattered Air: A True Account of Catastrophe and Courage on Yosemite's Half Dome

“When the buildup of opposite charges is insufficient for lightning to form, a coronal discharge or circular bluish glow—or even a mass of sparks—may appear over a high, sometimes pointed object. This phenomenon, first noted at the top of ships’ masts, is called St. Elmo’s fire, for the patron saint of sailors.”
― Bob Madgic, Shattered Air: A True Account of Catastrophe and Courage on Yosemite's Half Dome

“The safety rule is to wait at least thirty minutes after a storm has passed before venturing out.”
― Bob Madgic, Shattered Air: A True Account of Catastrophe and Courage on Yosemite's Half Dome

“Lightning can strike ten miles ahead of the storm where skies are still blue—hence the phrase a bolt out of the blue.”
― Bob Madgic, Shattered Air: A True Account of Catastrophe and Courage on Yosemite's Half Dome