The Climb Quotes

“Mountains have the power to call us into their realms and there, left forever, are our friends whose great souls were longing for the heights. Do not forget the mountaineers who have not returned from the summits.”
― Anatoli Boukreev, The Climb: Tragic Ambitions on Everest

“I had been hired to prepare the mountain for the people instead of the other way around.”
― Anatoli Boukreev, The Climb: Tragic Ambitions on Everest

“In late July, Boukreev obtained his copy of the Krakauer article . . . Boukreev and Adams listened as the article was read aloud. When Krakauer referred to him, Boukreev leaned forward, trying to understand the words and their meaning: 'Boukreev had returned to Camp IV at 4:30 p.m., before the brunt of the storm, having rushed down from the summit without waiting for clients--extremely questionable behavior for a guide.

Boukreev looked around the table, wondering if the people around him had heard the words as he had.

'Scott authorized my going down, to be ready to go back up. This was the plan. It worked. I don't understand why he would write this.'

As Krakauer's article continued, he implied that had Boukreev descended with clients, they might not have had the problems they did coming down, and that suggestion was devastating.

'I had no idea that the weather was a potential problem until I was well down the mountain. My concern, as was Scott's, was that the climbers' oxygen supplies were going to run out. I did the job Scott wanted me to do. If I had been farther up the mountain when the full force of the storm hit, I think it is likely I would have died with the clients. I honestly do. I am not a superman. In that weather, we all could possibly have died.”
― Anatoli Boukreev, The Climb: Tragic Ambitions on Everest

“as had been the situation on other commercial expeditions, I had been hired to prepare the mountain for the people instead of the other way around.”
― Anatoli Boukreev, The Climb: Tragic Ambitions on Everest

“It was possible that when the climbers were ready, the mountain wouldn’t be”
― Anatoli Boukreev, The Climb: Tragic Ambitions on Everest

“When I asked him what he thought, Neal said, 'Anatoli, many of our members are at high altitude for the first time, and they don't understand many of the simple things. They want us to hold their hands through everything.' I replied simply, saying that was an absurd position. I repeated again my concerns that we had to encourage self-reliance, and that our contributions to fixing ropes, getting the route ready, were just as important. About this Neal disagreed, saying that we had enough Sherpas to do this job. I told Neal that I thought, judging by our current situation, we were going to fall behind in the establishment of our high-altitude camps and our acclimatization routines could be compromised.”
― Anatoli Boukreev, The Climb: Tragic Ambitions on Everest

“But maybe, I thought, the price of climbing Everest is now being calculated in a different way. More and more people, it seems, are willing to pay a cash price for the opportunity, but not a physical price for preparedness: the gradual development of body and spirit as you climb lower-level peaks, moving from the simple to the complex and finally to the 8,000ers. Isn’t there accomplishment to be felt in such a process, I wondered, or has high-altitude climbing forever been changed by the use of oxygen, advances in technologies, and the proliferation of services that allow the marginally prepared to climb higher and higher?”
― Anatoli Boukreev, The Climb: Tragic Ambitions on Everest

“Sinceramente, no siento miedo cuando estoy en las montañas. Por el contrario… siento cómo mis hombros se yerguen, se ensanchan; como los pájaros cuando extienden las alas, disfruto la libertad y la altitud. Sólo cuando vuelvo a la vida del llano siento el peso del mundo sobre mis hombros”
― Anatoli Boukreev, The Climb: Tragic Ambitions on Everest

“Think of it as a blind date. All you initially have
in common at the bottom is the reason you’re there, the top of the mountain.”
― Anatoli Boukreev, The Climb: Tragic Ambitions on Everest

“There is not enough luck in the world. That night I got somebody’s share.”
― Anatoli Boukreev, The Climb: Tragic Ambitions on Everest

“The end of every road is only the beginning of a new one, even longer and more difficult”
― Anatoli Boukreev, The Climb: Tragic Ambitions on Everest

“The green of the lush forest and the air saturated with oxygen restores the human psyche like nothing else.”
― Anatoli Boukreev, The Climb: Tragic Ambitions on Everest

“Writing about a person invariably honors them or devalues them. Both Boukreev and DeWalt err on the side of honoring those attempting Everest, while Krakauer draws his reader toward tabloid-style assumptions that erase heroism from the Himalaya as surely as modern journalism erases greatness from the presidency.”
― Anatoli Boukreev, The Climb: Tragic Ambitions on Everest

“Creo que llegará un tiempo en que la totalidad de la ruta hasta la cumbre del Everest será fijada por un equipo de escaladores sherpas. Todas las expediciones que utilicen esta ruta tendrán que pagar a los sherpas a modo de contrato. Llegará un día en que los nepalíes tomarán control de esta montaña de la misma manera que los americanos controlan el acceso al McKinley. Pero no será sin las maquinaciones y protestas de aquellos que hasta ahora se han beneficiado de modo exorbitante del duro trabajo de hombres mal pagados.”
― Anatoli Boukreev, The Climb: Tragic Ambitions on Everest

“Lopsang Jangbu Sherpa's description of Scott Fischer's condition in the evening hours of May 10 have strongly suggested that Fischer had been stricken with HACE, high-altitude cerebral edema . . .

Fischer died approximately five hundred vertical meters above Camp IV. The heroic efforts of Lopsang, who struggled single handedly for more than five hours to get his friend and mentor down the mountain, have gone virtually unheralded.

Both Beidleman and Boukreev have wished they'd seen some definitive sign indicating serious distress on Fischer's part. Both have said that they would have made every attempt to turn him around if they'd had any idea of what was to come. Lopsang, after hearing of Fischer's death, blamed it entirely upon himself . . .

Fischer's deteriorating health, complicated apparently by a lack of oxygen, the hour at which he was stricken, his position on the mountain, poor communications, the weather that arose and the conditions and abilities of his team members who could have offered help were, in combination, the factors that led to his death.”
― Anatoli Boukreev, The Climb: Tragic Ambitions on Everest

“I have climbed mountains for more than twenty-five years, and only once on an assault of an 8,000er did I ever use it. Never has it been a problem for me, and Scott approved my climbing without it.”
― Anatoli Boukreev, The Climb: Tragic Ambitions on Everest