20 Quotes by Ed Viesturs

Mind over matter. If you don't mind, it doesn't matter.

Getting to the top is optional. Getting down is mandatory.

K2 is not some malevolent being, lurking there above the Baltoro, waiting to get us. It's just there. It's indifferent. It's an inanimate mountain made of rock, ice, and snow. The "savageness" is what we project onto it, as if we blame the peak for our own misadventures on it.

The summit is just a halfway point.

Mind over matter. If you don’t mind, it doesn’t matter.

The mountain decides whether you climb or not. The art of mountaineering is knowing when to go, when to stay, and when to retreat.

I believe that, with anything in life, if you have the patience, desire and passion, you can do whatever you set your mind to.

There are no short cuts to the top.

Every person has his or her own Annapurna.” I go on to explain that there were many Annapurnas in my life – challenges I wasn’t sure I could meet – but that “the real Annapurna was my last one.” For each of you out there, your Annapurna might be a tough project at work, a bad illness, or the breakup of a marriage, but the trick is to find a way of converting adversity into something positive, a challenge to look forward to.