The problem we face as explorer’s or climbers or adventurers is that our love of life and our desire to slow the passage of time require us to continually seek greater hardship and greater adversity. We have learned that if we pull away from our pursuits for even a moment, years slip by unnoticed and unappreciated. As a result, we relentlessly press on, with tacit acceptance of the great irony that our desire to grip life so tightly may eventually prevent us from holding onto life at all.

- Charlie Wittmack