Ninety per cent of the tourists climbing big mountains are on 10 mountains - and one million mountains in the world are empty.
Interpretation
Most tourists flock to the same popular mountains, leaving countless others unexplored.
Reinhold Messner's quote underscores the phenomenon of mass tourism where a large majority of adventurers choose to visit a few well-known peaks, while the vast majority of mountains remain untouched and undiscovered. This illustrates not only the appeal of popularity but also the missed opportunities for unique experiences in less frequented locations, encouraging individuals to explore beyond the crowded choices.
In practice
A travel blogger can use this quote to encourage readers to explore lesser-known destinations.
I became famous for the fact that I would break many, many limits. People said, 'He does all these crazy things.' But oddly it was a crazy thing only because scientists and climbers said, 'Everest and the 8,000-meter peaks without oxygen - impossible. Messner is becoming sick in his head.'
A 30-year-old rock climber is an old man. At 40, one is in the middle of his high-altitude power. At 50, a crosser of deserts is at his best age. But at 60, each of us is out of the game.
I think my cultural work is more important than the adventures I did. The adventures are not important for human beings. It's the conquering of the useless.
In mountaineering, there is not only the activity, but the philosophy behind it. Some say a moral, but I am against that because all morality is dangerous.
I was the first man to climb the world's 14 tallest peaks without supplementary oxygen, but I never asked how high I would go, just how I would do it.
In my state of spiritual abstraction, I no longer belong to myself and to my eyesight. I am nothing more than a single narrow gasping lung, floating over the mists and summits.
The important thing about adventures, thought Mr. Bunnsy, was that they shouldn't be so long as to make you miss mealtimes.
For us the mountains had been a natural field of activity where, playing on the frontiers of life and death, we had found the freedom for which we were blindly groping and which was as necessary to us as bread.
There are no safe paths in this part of the world. Remember you are over the Edge of the Wild now, and in for all sorts of fun wherever you go.
I think the only thing I knew for sure is that I wanted to, whatever I did, I wanted to travel with my work, an adventurous spirit.
To awaken quite alone in a strange town is one of the most pleasant sensations in the world. You are surrounded by adventure.
Adventure is a path...Real adventure - self-determined , self-motivated, often risky - forces you to have firsthand encounters with the world.
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