I've always hated the danger part of climbing, and it's great to come down again because it's safe.
Interpretation
The quote expresses the relief that comes with safety after facing a dangerous challenge like climbing.
Edmund Hillary reflects on the paradox of climbing, acknowledging the inherent dangers involved, yet also appreciating the contrast of safety that follows after successfully overcoming such risks. This highlights the idea that courage is not the absence of fear, but the ability to embrace challenges for the sense of accomplishment they bring.
In practice
This quote can inspire climbers to reflect on their own experiences with fear and safety.
I think I mainly climb mountains because I get a great deal of enjoyment out of it. I never attempt to analyze these things too thoroughly, but I think that all mountaineers do get a great deal of satisfaction out of overcoming some challenge which they think is very difficult for them, or which perhaps may be a little dangerous.
Despite all I have seen and experiences, I still get the same thrill out of glimpsing a tiny patch of snow in a high mountain gully and feel the same urge to climb toward it.
Even when you're 50, you can make the effort to improve your standards.
Many people have been getting too casual about climbing Everest. I forecast a disaster many times.
I am a lucky man. I have had a dream and it has come true, and that is not a thing that happens often to men.
Ever since the morning of May 29, 1953, when Tenzing Norgay and I became the first climbers to step onto the summit of Mount Everest, I've been called a great adventurer.
Because my husband, Peter, died young, I've already faced the scariest thing in my life. Now I live out the dreams for both of us.
I get butterflies before going out to ride every day, but they disappear as soon as I am on a horse, and I think that is the same for most jockeys. Then it is just down to you and the horse, and there is a certain freedom in that.
I had a vision - and I saw white spirits and black spirits engaged in battle, and the sun was darkened - the thunder rolled in the Heavens, and blood flowed in streams - and I heard a voice saying, 'Such is your luck, such are you called to see, and let it come rough or smooth, you must surely bear it.'
May the pain you have known and the conflict you have experienced give you the strength to walk through life facing each new situation with courage and optimism.
Open your newspaper - any day of the week - and you will find a report from somewhere in the world of someone being imprisoned, tortured or executed because his opinions or religion are unacceptable to his government.
I would rather do what I did than crawl in front of a ritualistic Left and lie the way those other comrades did betray my own soul.
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