20 Quotes by Ed Viesturs

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.

Mountains don’t kill people, they just sit there...

I like things that are difficult, physically and mentally. Things that are really challenging, things that really maybe take a long time but really push me to my limits.

Dreams are not made to put us to sleep, but to awaken us.

Early on May 23, 1997, from 28,500 feet on Everest, I witnessed the incredible shadow of the mountain, the penumbra, forming to the west as the sun rose behind me. The full moon from the night before was still visible. The bluish cast of the atmosphere can also be seen.

Yeah, but a mistake is a mistake even if you get away with it.

No matter what the future holds in store, I can say now – out loud, without hesitation – something that, sadly, all too few men and women can ever say: I have lived my dream.

It reminds me of a very wise saying about mountaineering that my wife, Paula, repeats often: “Just when you think you’ve got it figured out, you don’t.

Your instincts are telling you something. Trust them and listen to them.