EDWARD ABBEY
May your trails be crooked, winding, lonesome, dangerous, leading to the most amazing view. May your mountains rise into and above the clouds. . . . where something strange and more beautiful and more full of wonder than your deepest dreams waits for you . . . .
One final paragraph of advice: Do not burn yourselves out. Be as I am – a reluctant enthusiast . . . a part-time crusader, a half-hearted fanatic. Save the other half of yourselves and your lives for pleasure and adventure. It is not enough to fight for the land; it is even more important to enjoy it. While you can. While it’s still there. So get out there and hunt and fish and mess around with your friends, rumble out yonder and explore the forests, encounter the grizz, climb the mountains, bag the peaks, run the rivers, breathe deep of that yet sweet and lucid air, sit quietly for a while and contemplate the precious stillness, that lovely, mysterious and awesome space. Enjoy yourselves, keep your brain in your head and your head firmly attached to the body, the body active and alive, and I promise you this much: I promise you this one sweet victory over our enemies, over those desk-bound people with their hearts in a safe deposit box and their eyes hypnotized by desk calculators. I promise you this: you will outlive the bastards.
One final paragraph of advice: Do not burn yourselves out. Be as I am – a reluctant enthusiast . . . a part-time crusader, a half-hearted fanatic. Save the other half of yourselves and your lives for pleasure and adventure. It is not enough to fight for the land; it is even more important to enjoy it. While you can. While it’s still there. So get out there and hunt and fish and mess around with your friends, rumble out yonder and explore the forests, encounter the grizz, climb the mountains, bag the peaks, run the rivers, breathe deep of that yet sweet and lucid air, sit quietly for a while and contemplate the precious stillness, that lovely, mysterious and awesome space. Enjoy yourselves, keep your brain in your head and your head firmly attached to the body, the body active and alive, and I promise you this much: I promise you this one sweet victory over our enemies, over those desk-bound people with their hearts in a safe deposit box and their eyes hypnotized by desk calculators. I promise you this: you will outlive the bastards.
CONRAD ANKER
I think mountains can really kickstart people’s sense of adventure – something that was easy enough to find 150 years ago but is much harder nowadays. Another thing about mountaineering that also draws people in, I think, is the level of trust and camaraderie that’s involved. If you and I go out on a climb, we’re a team. The potential adversaries are the environment, the weather, getting your stove working. So you really have to work together, and the wilderness teaches that message more than any other place. . . . But when you go to the mountains, you’re bound to come back and really appreciate the simple things in life. After being in this self-imposed hardship, you really appreciate being with friends and family, having a cup of coffee, a conversation, rather than being caught up with all that other stuff. It helps you focus on what’s meaningful in life. Plus, it’s just so beautiful out there that I always have to go back.
IRVING BERLIN
While the storm clouds gather far across the sea,
Let us swear allegiance to a land that's free,
Let us all be grateful for a land so fair,
As we raise our voices in a solemn prayer.
God Bless America,
Land that I love.
Stand beside her, and guide her
Thru the night with a light from above.
From the mountains, to the prairies,
To the oceans, white with foam
God bless America, My home sweet home.
God Bless America
Let us swear allegiance to a land that's free,
Let us all be grateful for a land so fair,
As we raise our voices in a solemn prayer.
God Bless America,
Land that I love.
Stand beside her, and guide her
Thru the night with a light from above.
From the mountains, to the prairies,
To the oceans, white with foam
God bless America, My home sweet home.
God Bless America
THE BIBLE
At the end of a hundred and fifty days the waters had abated; and in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, the ark came to rest upon the mountains of Ararat.
GENESIS 8:3-4
Immediately Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowd. After he had dismissed them, he went up on a mountainside by himself to pray.
MATTHEW 14:22-23
Jesus went up on a mountainside and called to him those he wanted, and they came to him. He appointed twelve – designating them apostles – that they might be with him and that he might send them out to preach and to have authority to drive out demons.
LUKE 3:13-15
They all ate and were satisfied, and the disciples picked up twelve basketfuls of broken pieces of bread and fish. The number of men who had eaten was five thousand. Immediately Jesus made his disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of him to Bethsaida, while he dismissed the crowd. After leaving them, he went up on a mountainside to pray.
LUKE 6:42-46
Jesus took Peter, James and John with him and led them up a high mountain, where they were all alone. There he was transfigured before them. His clothes became dazzling white, whiter than anyone in the world could bleach them. And there appeared before them Elijah and Moses, who were talking with Jesus.
LUKE 9:2-4
“Have faith in God,” Jesus answered. “I tell you the truth, if anyone says to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart but believes that what he says will happen, it will be done for him. Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.”
LUKE 11:22-24
Each day Jesus was teaching at the temple, and each evening he went out to spend the night on the hill called the Mount of Olives, and all the people came early in the morning to hear him at the temple.
LUKE 21:37-38
Jesus went out as usual to the Mount of Olives, and his disciples followed him. On reaching the place, he said to them, “Pray that you will not fall into temptation.” He withdrew about a stone’s throw beyond them, knelt down and prayed, “Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done.”
LUKE 22:39-42
Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
MATTHEW 28:16-20
GENESIS 8:3-4
Immediately Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowd. After he had dismissed them, he went up on a mountainside by himself to pray.
MATTHEW 14:22-23
Jesus went up on a mountainside and called to him those he wanted, and they came to him. He appointed twelve – designating them apostles – that they might be with him and that he might send them out to preach and to have authority to drive out demons.
LUKE 3:13-15
They all ate and were satisfied, and the disciples picked up twelve basketfuls of broken pieces of bread and fish. The number of men who had eaten was five thousand. Immediately Jesus made his disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of him to Bethsaida, while he dismissed the crowd. After leaving them, he went up on a mountainside to pray.
LUKE 6:42-46
Jesus took Peter, James and John with him and led them up a high mountain, where they were all alone. There he was transfigured before them. His clothes became dazzling white, whiter than anyone in the world could bleach them. And there appeared before them Elijah and Moses, who were talking with Jesus.
LUKE 9:2-4
“Have faith in God,” Jesus answered. “I tell you the truth, if anyone says to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart but believes that what he says will happen, it will be done for him. Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.”
LUKE 11:22-24
Each day Jesus was teaching at the temple, and each evening he went out to spend the night on the hill called the Mount of Olives, and all the people came early in the morning to hear him at the temple.
LUKE 21:37-38
Jesus went out as usual to the Mount of Olives, and his disciples followed him. On reaching the place, he said to them, “Pray that you will not fall into temptation.” He withdrew about a stone’s throw beyond them, knelt down and prayed, “Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done.”
LUKE 22:39-42
Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
MATTHEW 28:16-20
WILLIAM BLAKE
Great things are done when men and mountains meet.
DAVID BREASHEARS
The risk inherent in climbing such mountains carries its own reward, deep and abiding, because it provides as profound a sense of self-knowledge as anything else on earth. A mountain is perilous, true; but it is also redemptive. Maybe I had dimly understood this when, as a rootless boy, with no earthly place to call my own, I deliberately chose the iconoclast’s rocky path of mountain climbing. But in this moment of pure clarity I realized that ascending Everest had been, for me, both a personal declaration of liberty and a defiant act of escape. Now, suddenly, I felt an inexpressible serenity, a full-blooded reaffirmation of life, on Everest’s icy ridges.
At last, I was ready to descend the mountain and go home.
High Exposure
At last, I was ready to descend the mountain and go home.
High Exposure
JIMMY CHIN
A lot of why I climb is for the friendship, the loyalty and trust, the shared experience of being in that moment.
People say, "Are you insane?" But the most successful climbers are the most calculating, with the most refined sense of risk.
They're hyper-conscious of safety. They're the least insane people I know.
People say, "Are you insane?" But the most successful climbers are the most calculating, with the most refined sense of risk.
They're hyper-conscious of safety. They're the least insane people I know.
CONFUCIUS
The man of wisdom takes pleasure in water;
the man of humanity delights in the mountains.
the man of humanity delights in the mountains.
GUY COTTER
The art of a successful Himalayan climber, at least in my view, is to be able to sleep and eat for days on end, then get up and go hard when the time is right.
Everest Mountain Guide
Everest Mountain Guide
RENE DAUMAL
You cannot stay on the summit forever,
you must come down again.
So why bother in the first place?
Just this:
What is above knows what is below,
but what is below doesn’t know what is above.
One climbs, one sees.
One descends, one sees no longer,
But one has seen.
There is an art of conducting oneself in the
lower regions by the memory of what
one saw higher up.
What one can no longer see, one can at least
still know.
you must come down again.
So why bother in the first place?
Just this:
What is above knows what is below,
but what is below doesn’t know what is above.
One climbs, one sees.
One descends, one sees no longer,
But one has seen.
There is an art of conducting oneself in the
lower regions by the memory of what
one saw higher up.
What one can no longer see, one can at least
still know.
JOHN DENVER
Now his life is full of wonder
But his heart still knows some fear
Of a simple thing he cannot comprehend
Why they try to tear the mountains down
To bring in a couple more
More people, more scars upon the land
And the Colorado Rocky Mountain high
I’ve seen it rainin’ fire in the sky
I know he’d be a poorer man if he never saw an eagle fly
Rocky Mountain high
Rocky Mountain High
But his heart still knows some fear
Of a simple thing he cannot comprehend
Why they try to tear the mountains down
To bring in a couple more
More people, more scars upon the land
And the Colorado Rocky Mountain high
I’ve seen it rainin’ fire in the sky
I know he’d be a poorer man if he never saw an eagle fly
Rocky Mountain high
Rocky Mountain High
ROBERT FROST
The Vermont mountains stretch extended straight;
New Hampshire mountains curl up in a coil.
New Hampshire
New Hampshire mountains curl up in a coil.
New Hampshire
CHIEF DAN GEORGE
The summit of the mountain, the thunder of the sky, the rhythm of the sea, speaks to me . . . And my heart soars.
GIUSTO GERVASUTTI
Mountaineering is simply a form of activity that enables people to express themselves, lets them satisfy an inner need.
The need may be to live heroically, or to rebel against restraint and limitation: an affirmation of the freedom of the spirit. Or it may be the pleasure of physical fitness and oral energy, elegance of style and calculated daring. It may be the search for an intense esthetic experience, for exquisite sensations, or for man’s never-satisfied desire for unknown country to explore. Best of all, it should be all these things together.
The Best of Ascent
The need may be to live heroically, or to rebel against restraint and limitation: an affirmation of the freedom of the spirit. Or it may be the pleasure of physical fitness and oral energy, elegance of style and calculated daring. It may be the search for an intense esthetic experience, for exquisite sensations, or for man’s never-satisfied desire for unknown country to explore. Best of all, it should be all these things together.
The Best of Ascent
NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE
Mountains are earth’s undecaying monuments.
Sketches from Memory: The Notch of the White Mountains
Sketches from Memory: The Notch of the White Mountains
ERNEST HEMINGWAY
Kilimanjaro is a snow-covered mountain 19,710 feet high, and is said to be the highest mountain in Africa. Its western summit is called the Masai “Ngaje Ngai,” the House of God. Close to the western summit there is the dried and frozen carcass of a leopard. No one has explained what the leopard was seeking at that altitude.
The Snows of Kilimanjaro
There are only 3 real sports: bull-fighting, car racing and mountain climbing.
All the others are mere games.
The Snows of Kilimanjaro
There are only 3 real sports: bull-fighting, car racing and mountain climbing.
All the others are mere games.
EDMUND HILLARY
Strong motivation is the most important factor in getting you to the top.
It is not the mountain we conquer but ourselves.
It is not the mountain we conquer but ourselves.
ALDOUS HUXLEY
My father considered a walk among the mountains as the equivalent of churchgoing.
MARK JENKINS
Nothing is more damning in the mountains than hubris, yet hubris is fundamental to climbing mountains. All serious mountaineers possess big egos. You cannot take the risks and constant suffering of big mountains without one. We may talk like Buddhists, but don’t be fooled, we’re actually narcissists – driven, single-minded, masochistic narcissists.
MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR.
I just want to do God's will. And he's allowed me to go to the mountain. And I've looked over, and I've seen the promised land! I may not get there with you, but I want you to know tonight that we as a people will get to the promised land.
WOJCIECH KURTYKA
Mountaineering is a complex and unique way of life, interweaving elements of sport, art and mysticism. Success or failure depends on the ebb and flow of immense inspiration. Detecting a single rule governing this energy is difficult – it arises and vanishes like the urge to dance and remains as mysterious as the phenomenon of life itself.
GEORGE MALLORY
The first question which you will ask and which I must try to answer is this, "What is the use of climbing Mount Everest?" and my answer must at once be, "It is no use." There is not the slightest prospect of any gain whatsoever. Oh, we may learn a little about the behavior of the human body at high altitudes, and possibly medical men may turn our observation to some account for the purposes of aviation. But otherwise nothing will come of it. We shall not bring back a single bit of gold or silver, not a gem, nor any coal or iron. We shall not find a single foot of earth that can be planted with crops to raise food. It's no use. So, if you cannot understand that there is something in man which responds to the challenge of this mountain and goes out to meet it, that the struggle is the struggle of life itself upward and forever upward, then you won't see why we go. What we get from this adventure is just sheer joy. And joy is, after all, the end of life. We do not live to eat and make money. We eat and make money to be able to enjoy life. That is what life means and what life is for.
NELSON MANDELA
After climbing a great hill, one only finds that there are many more hills to climb.
BERNADETTE MCDONALD
To be a climber, one has to accept that gratification is rarely immediate.
REINHOLD MESSNER
Mountains are not fair or unfair. They are dangerous.
JOHN MUIR
Doubly happy, however, is the man to whom lofty mountain tops are within reach, for the lights that shine there illumine all that lies below.
We are all, in some sense, mountaineers, and going to the mountains is going home.
The clearest way into the Universe is through the forest wilderness.
Climb the mountains and get their good tidings.
Nature's peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into the trees.
The winds will blow their own freshness into you,
and the storms their energy,
while cares will drop off like autumn leaves.
The mountains are calling and I must go.
Thousands of tired, nerve-shaken, over-civilized people are beginning to find out that going to the mountains is going home; that wildness is necessity; that mountain parks and reservations are useful not only as fountains of timber and irrigating rivers, but as fountains of life.
We are all, in some sense, mountaineers, and going to the mountains is going home.
The clearest way into the Universe is through the forest wilderness.
Climb the mountains and get their good tidings.
Nature's peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into the trees.
The winds will blow their own freshness into you,
and the storms their energy,
while cares will drop off like autumn leaves.
The mountains are calling and I must go.
Thousands of tired, nerve-shaken, over-civilized people are beginning to find out that going to the mountains is going home; that wildness is necessity; that mountain parks and reservations are useful not only as fountains of timber and irrigating rivers, but as fountains of life.
DERLA MURPHY
Each human spirit is immortal – for time cannot destroy whatever element within us reverences the glory of a dawn in the mountains.
JAMLING TENZING NORGAY
Preparing for Everest physically is relatively easy. Mental preparation is more difficult. The climber must develop mindfulness and, most important, approach the mountain without hubris.
Touching My Father’s Soul
When climbing, the presence of mind that one needs in dangerous situations makes one naturally undistracted, and that undistractedness is what generates awareness and a feeling of being completely alive. Every action becomes meaningful because each movement is a matter of life and death. As one rock climber reportedly said when asked why he climbed high and extremely difficult vertical cliffs solo, without a rope: “It helps my concentration.”
My father knew before he ever set foot on the mountain that it had to be approached with respect and with love, the way a child climbs into the lap of its mother. Anyone who attacks the peak with aggression, like a soldier doing battle, will lose. Thus, there is but one appropriate response upon reaching the summit of Miyolangsangma’s mountain: to express gratitude.
. . . ultimately, he never fully understood what all the hype and fuss about Everest were about. To him, Everest and mountaineering meant teamwork, respect, and sharing the joy of the mountains with friends.
What I learned most – from both my father and the mountain – was humility. They both demanded it. At the end of six previous attempts to climb Chomolungma my father retreated, he said, not in defeat but in reverence. He told me that he was finally able to reach her summit in 1953 – as a visitor on a pilgrimage – only by virtue of respect for Miyolangsangma.
“We shouldn’t believe that small wrongdoing can do no harm, because even a small spark can ignite a giant pile of hay. Similarly, the value of the smallest good deeds should not be underestimated, for even tiny flakes of snow, falling one atop another, can blanket the tallest mountains in pure whiteness.”
Sherpa Buddhist proverb as told by Jamling Tenzing Norgay in Touching My Father's Soul
Touching My Father’s Soul
When climbing, the presence of mind that one needs in dangerous situations makes one naturally undistracted, and that undistractedness is what generates awareness and a feeling of being completely alive. Every action becomes meaningful because each movement is a matter of life and death. As one rock climber reportedly said when asked why he climbed high and extremely difficult vertical cliffs solo, without a rope: “It helps my concentration.”
My father knew before he ever set foot on the mountain that it had to be approached with respect and with love, the way a child climbs into the lap of its mother. Anyone who attacks the peak with aggression, like a soldier doing battle, will lose. Thus, there is but one appropriate response upon reaching the summit of Miyolangsangma’s mountain: to express gratitude.
. . . ultimately, he never fully understood what all the hype and fuss about Everest were about. To him, Everest and mountaineering meant teamwork, respect, and sharing the joy of the mountains with friends.
What I learned most – from both my father and the mountain – was humility. They both demanded it. At the end of six previous attempts to climb Chomolungma my father retreated, he said, not in defeat but in reverence. He told me that he was finally able to reach her summit in 1953 – as a visitor on a pilgrimage – only by virtue of respect for Miyolangsangma.
“We shouldn’t believe that small wrongdoing can do no harm, because even a small spark can ignite a giant pile of hay. Similarly, the value of the smallest good deeds should not be underestimated, for even tiny flakes of snow, falling one atop another, can blanket the tallest mountains in pure whiteness.”
Sherpa Buddhist proverb as told by Jamling Tenzing Norgay in Touching My Father's Soul
ROBERT PIRSIG
Mountains should be climbed with as little effort as possible and without desire. The reality of your own nature should determine the speed. If you become restless, speed up. If you become winded, slow down. You climb the mountain in an equilibrium between restlessness and exhaustion. Then, when you’re no longer thinking ahead, each footstep isn’t just a means to an end but a unique event in itself. This leaf has jagged edges. This rock looks loose. From this place the snow is less visible, even though closer. These are things you should notice anyway. To live only for some future goal is shallow. It’s the sides of the mountains which sustain life, not the top . . .
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
POPE PIUS XI
In his laborious efforts to attain mountaintops, where the air is lighter and purer, the climber gains new strength of limb. In the endeavor to overcome obstacles of the way, the soul trains itself to conquer difficulties; and the spectacle of the vast horizon, which from the highest crest offers itself on all sides to the eyes, raises his spirit to the Divine Author and Sovereign of Nature.
THEODORE ROOSEVELT
Ordinarily, the man who loves the woods and mountains, the trees, the flowers, and the wild things, has in him some indefinable quality of charm, which appeals even to those sons of civilization who care for little outside of paved streets and brick walls.
WANDA RUTKIEWICZ
I take all my emotions to the mountains with me so any fighting I do is with myself, not the mountain. . . . What you can't do is dominate the mountain. Mountains never forgive mistakes, which is why I keep up a dialogue with them. . . . When I'm up in that thin air, suffering at every step, I'm able to reach deep into my inner self and in those moments I have a certainty that someone is helping me.
I cannot resist the mountains, and that is why I have chosen the single life.
Every one of us has his own other life. We have our loved ones, but . . . climbing has become a part of my life. A passion that engulfs everything so that I can't quit it, just like I can't quit my own life.
I cannot resist the mountains, and that is why I have chosen the single life.
Every one of us has his own other life. We have our loved ones, but . . . climbing has become a part of my life. A passion that engulfs everything so that I can't quit it, just like I can't quit my own life.
DOUGLAS SCOTT
Without an element of danger lurking around the corner, mountaineering must lose its appeal.
ROBERT SERVICE
There’s a race of men that don’t fit in,
A race that can’t stay still;
So they break the hearts of kith and kin,
And they roam the world at will.
They range the field and they rove the flood,
And they climb the mountain’s crest;
Theirs is the curse of the gypsy blood,
And they don’t know how to rest. . . .
The Men That Don’t Fit In
Have you gazed on naked grandeur where there's nothing else to gaze on,
Set pieces and drop-curtain scenes galore,
Big mountains heaved to heaven, which the blinding sunsets blazon,
Black canyons where the rapids rip and roar?
Have you swept the visioned valley with the green stream streaking through it,
Searched the Vastness for a something you have lost?
Have you strung your soul to silence? Then for God's sake go and do it;
Hear the challenge, learn the lesson, pay the cost.
Have you wandered in the wilderness, the sagebrush desolation,
The bunch-grass levels where the cattle graze?
Have you whistled bits of rag-time at the end of all creation,
And learned to know the desert's little ways?
Have you camped upon the foothills, have you galloped o'er the ranges,
Have you roamed the arid sun-lands through and through?
Have you chummed up with the mesa? Do you know its moods and changes?
Then listen to the Wild -- it's calling you.
Have you known the Great White Silence, not a snow-gemmed twig aquiver?
(Eternal truths that shame our soothing lies.)
Have you broken trail on snowshoes? mushed your huskies up the river,
Dared the unknown, led the way, and clutched the prize?
Have you marked the map's void spaces, mingled with the mongrel races,
Felt the savage strength of brute in every thew?
And though grim as hell the worst is, can you round it off with curses?
Then hearken to the Wild -- it's wanting you.
Have you suffered, starved and triumphed, groveled down, yet grasped at glory,
Grown bigger in the bigness of the whole?
"Done things" just for the doing, letting babblers tell the story,
Seeing through the nice veneer the naked soul?
Have you seen God in His splendors, heard the text that nature renders?
(You'll never hear it in the family pew.)
The simple things, the true things, the silent men who do things --
Then listen to the Wild -- it's calling you.
They have cradled you in custom, they have primed you with their preaching,
They have soaked you in convention through and through;
They have put you in a showcase; you're a credit to their teaching --
But can't you hear the Wild? -- it's calling you.
Let us probe the silent places, let us seek what luck betide us;
Let us journey to a lonely land I know.
There's a whisper on the night-wind, there's a star agleam to guide us,
And the Wild is calling, calling . . . let us go.
The Call of the Wild
A race that can’t stay still;
So they break the hearts of kith and kin,
And they roam the world at will.
They range the field and they rove the flood,
And they climb the mountain’s crest;
Theirs is the curse of the gypsy blood,
And they don’t know how to rest. . . .
The Men That Don’t Fit In
Have you gazed on naked grandeur where there's nothing else to gaze on,
Set pieces and drop-curtain scenes galore,
Big mountains heaved to heaven, which the blinding sunsets blazon,
Black canyons where the rapids rip and roar?
Have you swept the visioned valley with the green stream streaking through it,
Searched the Vastness for a something you have lost?
Have you strung your soul to silence? Then for God's sake go and do it;
Hear the challenge, learn the lesson, pay the cost.
Have you wandered in the wilderness, the sagebrush desolation,
The bunch-grass levels where the cattle graze?
Have you whistled bits of rag-time at the end of all creation,
And learned to know the desert's little ways?
Have you camped upon the foothills, have you galloped o'er the ranges,
Have you roamed the arid sun-lands through and through?
Have you chummed up with the mesa? Do you know its moods and changes?
Then listen to the Wild -- it's calling you.
Have you known the Great White Silence, not a snow-gemmed twig aquiver?
(Eternal truths that shame our soothing lies.)
Have you broken trail on snowshoes? mushed your huskies up the river,
Dared the unknown, led the way, and clutched the prize?
Have you marked the map's void spaces, mingled with the mongrel races,
Felt the savage strength of brute in every thew?
And though grim as hell the worst is, can you round it off with curses?
Then hearken to the Wild -- it's wanting you.
Have you suffered, starved and triumphed, groveled down, yet grasped at glory,
Grown bigger in the bigness of the whole?
"Done things" just for the doing, letting babblers tell the story,
Seeing through the nice veneer the naked soul?
Have you seen God in His splendors, heard the text that nature renders?
(You'll never hear it in the family pew.)
The simple things, the true things, the silent men who do things --
Then listen to the Wild -- it's calling you.
They have cradled you in custom, they have primed you with their preaching,
They have soaked you in convention through and through;
They have put you in a showcase; you're a credit to their teaching --
But can't you hear the Wild? -- it's calling you.
Let us probe the silent places, let us seek what luck betide us;
Let us journey to a lonely land I know.
There's a whisper on the night-wind, there's a star agleam to guide us,
And the Wild is calling, calling . . . let us go.
The Call of the Wild
DR. SEUSS
Today is your day!
Your mountain is waiting.
So . . . get on your way!
Your mountain is waiting.
So . . . get on your way!
THE SOUND OF MUSIC (1965)
The hills are alive with the sound of music
With songs they have sung for a thousand years
The hills fill my heart with the sound of music
My heart wants to sing every song it hears . . .
I go to the hills when my heart is lonely
I know I will hear what I've heard before
My heart will be blessed with the sound of music
And I'll sing once more
The Sound of Music
Climb ev'ry mountain
Search high and low
Follow ev'ry by-way
Every path you know
Climb ev'ry mountain
Ford ev'ry stream
Follow ev'ry rainbow
'Till you find your dream
A dream that will need
All the love you can give
Every day of your life
For as long as you live
Climb Ev'ry Mountain
With songs they have sung for a thousand years
The hills fill my heart with the sound of music
My heart wants to sing every song it hears . . .
I go to the hills when my heart is lonely
I know I will hear what I've heard before
My heart will be blessed with the sound of music
And I'll sing once more
The Sound of Music
Climb ev'ry mountain
Search high and low
Follow ev'ry by-way
Every path you know
Climb ev'ry mountain
Ford ev'ry stream
Follow ev'ry rainbow
'Till you find your dream
A dream that will need
All the love you can give
Every day of your life
For as long as you live
Climb Ev'ry Mountain
ST. AUGUSTINE
People travel to wonder at the height of mountains, at the huge waves of the sea, at the long courses of rivers, at the vast compass of the ocean, at the circular motion of the stars; and they pass by themselves without wondering.
JAN SZCZEPAŃSKI
Climbing is not a symbol or poetic metaphor of life - it is life itself.
U2
I have climbed highest mountain
I have run through the fields
Only to be with you
Only to be with you
I have run
I have crawled
I have scaled these city walls
These city walls
Only to be with you
But I still haven't found what I'm looking for
I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For
I have run through the fields
Only to be with you
Only to be with you
I have run
I have crawled
I have scaled these city walls
These city walls
Only to be with you
But I still haven't found what I'm looking for
I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For
ED VIESTERS
Getting to the top is optional. Getting down is mandatory.
Mountains don't kill people, they just sit there.
Mountains don't kill people, they just sit there.
JIM WHITTAKER
If you’re not living on the edge, you’re taking up too much space.
It’s unfortunate that mountaineering lingers on the fine edge of tragedy, but it does . . . I’ve always felt that a person who lived a little bit close to the edge lived a little bit more aware.
It’s unfortunate that mountaineering lingers on the fine edge of tragedy, but it does . . . I’ve always felt that a person who lived a little bit close to the edge lived a little bit more aware.
KRZYSZTOF WIELICKI
If you want to climb, there is a cost. Usually the cost is family. I have to say sorry, sorry, sorry. They suffer at home and we suffer on the mountain.
EDWARD WHYMPER
. . . climb if you will, but remember that courage and strength are naught without prudence, and that a momentary negligence may destroy the happiness of a lifetime. Do nothing in haste; look well to each step and from the beginning think what may be the end.
Scrambles Among the Alps
Scrambles Among the Alps
W.B. YEATS
Faeries, come take me out of this dull world,
For I would ride with you upon the wind,
Run on the top of the disheveled tide,
And dance upon the mountains like a flame.
The Land of the Heart’s Desire
For I would ride with you upon the wind,
Run on the top of the disheveled tide,
And dance upon the mountains like a flame.
The Land of the Heart’s Desire