Mountain Climbing Quotes

“As de Saussure said, risk-taking brings with it its own reward: it keeps a "continual agitation alive" in the heart. Hope, fear. Hope, fear - this is the fundamental rhythm of mountaineering. Life, it frequently seems in the mountains, is more intensely lived the closer one gets to its extinction: we never feel so alive as when we have nearly died.”
― Robert Macfarlane, Mountains of the Mind: A History of a Fascination

“I know I can't own a hilltop, a meadow, or a mountainside. But keeping it a secret somehow makes it mine.”
― Joyce Rachelle

“when you get to the peak, remember the valley exists”
― Ernest Agyemang Yeboah

“The real flight of this hawk is impending.

Still,this bird is yet to be tested for real.

Though I have leaped over the seas,

well,the entire sky is still remaining to fly.

And make sure that ,i am gonna do it with all my heart and all my soul.

#loveyoourlife #liveyourlife #hvFUN”
― Arunima Sinha, Born Again on the Mountain: a story of losing everything and finding it back

“The best friends of the highest mountains are only the clouds and the adventurer mountaineers!”
― Mehmet Murat ildan

“No, not conquer, that is too foolish a world. Any man who scales a mountain is still but a man, a transient speck compared to the immensity and permanence of a mountain .”
― James Rozoff, Stories Light And Dark: Nine Short Stories

“The mountain greets me with respect and guides me to traverse the rocks and crevices of its body! He is strong and vigorous and he appreciates my stamina and toughness.”
― Avijeet Das

“In mountaineering, those who think that it is a terrible tragedy to fail when close to the top and come back are people who are so naive as to be completely unaware of those who reached the top and never came back! Sometimes the best way to reach a goal is to give up on that goal for a while!”
― Mehmet Murat ildan

“. . .There is nothing to complain of. . .we had a gorgeous day for the climb, almost windless and brilliantly fine, yet we were unable to get to the summit. So we have no excuse - we have been beaten in fair fight; beaten by the height of the mountain, and by our own shortness of breath. But the fight was worth it, worth it every time, and we shall cherish the privilege of defeat by the world's greatest mountain.”
― Howard Somervell

“Climbing has taught me many lessons, one of the most important being, just how ever-present death is. Having faced death a few times now while climbing, has made me realize that I have no fear of it.”
― Mekael Shane

“I was born to live, in pursuit of the penultimate high.
I am guaranteed a Homeric death, when it's my time to die.”
― Mekael Shane

“As you climb down the mountain, a disturbing emotion emerges in your soul! This is a sense of emptiness that comes from seeing that climbing to the top is not a great victory that glorifies or raises man!”
― Mehmet Murat ildan

“When you climb up to the highest point of a mountain, the mountain will climb down to your lowest point!”
― Mehmet Murat ildan

“Christ is the Master - and the Answer - at navigating through peak Foolishness and the height of Evil (with a twist): He's been handling man's crimes since before mankind - from the fallen angels way before there was time. Raised high on any mountain we climb reads a Sign; and His point's to say, 'Just trust Me. Now, come alive.”
― Criss Jami

“Few experiences rival a serious climb for bringing us into close contact with our own limitations. Part engineering project, part chess game, part ultramarathon, mountaineering demands of us in a way that other endeavors do not. After my trip to Cholatse, I came to think of high-altitude climbing not so much as a sport but as a kind of art or even, in its purest form, rugged spirituality—a modern version of secular asceticism that purifies the soul by stripping away worldly comfort and convenience while forcing you to stare across the threshold of mortality. It is our effort to toil through these hazardous and inhospitable landscapes that culminates with such potent effect, what humanistic psychologists have described as the attainment of self-actualization, a pinnacle of personal expression that dissolves the constraints of our ordinary lives and allows us, even if fleetingly, to “become what we are capable of becoming.” This transformative power is, in a way, why summits have taken on so much symbolic importance for those who pursue them. As the reigning mythology suggests, the higher the peak—Rainier, Cholatse, Everest—the more it fires the imagination.”
― Nick Heil, Dark Summit: The True Story of Everest's Most Controversial Season

“Climbing mountains may seem easy but it takes thousands of foothills and perseverance to reach to the highest peak.”
― Bhawna Dehariya

“Well said!!! The best view comes after the hardest climb and to reach to the peak one has to cross many tiny foothills.”
― Bhawna Dehariya

“The title of this Chautauqua is "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance," not "Zen and the Art of Mountain Climbing," and there are no motorcycles on the tops of mountains, and in my opinion very little Zen. Zen is the "spirit of the valley," not the mountaintop. The only Zen you fin on the tops of mountains is the Zen you bring up there.”
― Robert M. Pirsig, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry Into Values

“If you are looking for a career that may induce a myriad of health conditions into you, I can recommend working at the 13,796 feet very high altitude summit of Mauna Kea, Hawaii, USA.”
― Steven Magee

“Alpnizm to głównie emocje. W kilka minut można przeżyć tyle, ile na dole nie przeżyje się przez całe życie.”
― Krzysztof Wielicki

“If you're not moving, you're standing still.”
― Stephen Trafton, At The Edge: A life in search of challenge

“To think that there's any mountain too high for me to CLIMB would be the universe playing mind games with me and I'm constantly positioning my mind to not fall for such a trick.”
― Chinonye J. Chidolue

“What draws us from the low valleys to the high mountains is that noble stance of the summits!”
― Mehmet Murat ildan

“Mounting high; Mounting far. Your goal the Empyrean; Your aim the MACS0647-JD.”
― Prof.Salam Al Shereida

“When you climb to the top of a mountain and still thinking about your own little problems rather than major universal issues, then you haven't climbed that mountain, you're still in the lower valleys!”
― Mehmet Murat ildan

“Breaking Everest by Stewart Stafford

On this Everest of déjà vu,
We broke up in avalanches,
Rote tumbling and tedium,
Dead stares at the bottom.

Climbers phoning in motion,
A poke for the All-Seeing Eye,
Pack mules heaving baggage,
Tense on the musical ski lifts.

Even with three tiny travellers,
That peak hosted no summits,
Cast-off hairshirt strait-jackets,
The wound-licking began afresh.

© Stewart Stafford, 2023. All rights reserved.”
― Stewart Stafford

“You and I feel very differently about these things. For me, all I saw was the mountain, and all I wanted was to climb it. I really wasn't looking for anything on the mountain. When I climbed those mountains for the first time and I saw the plain stretch out below me, I felt like I had been reborn”
― Liu Cixin, Mountain

“A dim sun shines faintly through the clouds. I gaze up at the mountain I must climb, then lower my eyes to look at my trembling legs. My legs are fragile but my spirit remains undaunted. Step by step, I will traverse upward. I will be there.”
― Bhuwan Thapaliya, Our Nepal, Our Pride

“Only the summit can illuminate its own insignificance.”
― Cory Richards, The Color of Everything: A Journey to Quiet the Chaos Within

“Being alone and lost on the mountain made me feel very small and vulnerable. The congenial fellowship in the meal tent reminded me that we humans are social beings. Community is an essential aspect of our humanity.”
― Jeff Rasley, 72 Wisdoms: A practical guide to make life more meaningful