Viesturs-Roberts-No Shortcuts to the Top

No Shortcuts to the Top

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Highlights

alpine-style,” fast and light, with no fixed ropes and no stocked camps. — location: 168

They’re hiring me for my leadership and judgment, not for a double-your-money-back summit guarantee. — location: 681

Both Rob and Gary were, in a sense, locked by their very success into an ongoing game in the Death Zone. — location: 692

By then, I’d climbed six of the fourteen 8,000ers. I answered, “First of all, don’t get yourself killed doing it. It’s not worth it. On summit day, you have to start early enough to give yourself plenty of time. And even if you start at midnight, make sure that by two P.M., if you’re not in striking distance of the top, you turn around and go down. And make sure you still have the energy to get down. Don’t use up everything you’ve got going up.” — location: 744

I like things that are difficult to achieve—things that can’t get done in a day but take much more time and effort. — location: 850

“Safety is first; fun is second; success is third.” — location: 1183

I quickly learned to keep my mouth shut, to do my job, and to absorb every lesson I could from the senior guides. — location: 1197

My motto was “Keep your mouth shut and work hard.” — location: 1388

A great climb is a wonderful mixture of difficulty and intimacy. — location: 1634

Getting to the top is optional. Getting down is mandatory. — location: 2965

You can live a life so sheltered that when you’re old and gray, all you can claim is to have lived long enough to become old. That’s not my way. — location: 5583

I used to believe that mountaineering was inherently selfish. That it didn’t do anybody else any good—it didn’t change the world, it didn’t save the planet. The same, to be sure, could be said of most human endeavors. Being a pro quarterback or a movie star or the CEO of an insurance company doesn’t save the planet either. Unless you’re a firefighter, an EMT, a crisis worker in a natural catastrophe, a research scientist looking for cures for intractable diseases, or the like, you’re not doing much to improve the world or other people’s lives. When I first voiced these feelings to Paula, however, she strenuously disagreed. She said, “Eddie, I’ve seen you speak and give slide shows. I’ve seen you inspire whole crowds of people. What you do when you do that isn’t selfish at all. You’re taking what you excel at and spreading it as a gift among countless others.” — location: 5584

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. — location: 5620