Secrets of the Mountains

Discover the secrets of the mountains – they always have something to teach you. In this post we have collated insights from mountaineers and adventurers which provide great examples of some of the big lessons from the mountains.

We had used these in a fundraising campaign for the Australian Himalayan Foundation through our Project Base8000 where we revealed one secret for each of the 14 x 8000m mountains.

“If you stop long enough to listen, the mountains always have something to teach you.“

David Breshears – High Exposure

Challenge

“There are times in life when you have to be bold.” Sir Edmund Hillary

“Challenge is not about the mountain it is about yourself and overcoming your fears and getting to the top.” Sir Edmund Hillary

“Ed, my boy, this is Everest – you’ve got to go the distance.” From Beyond the Edge film – Sir Edmund Hillary

“… the road that we choose to follow in life depends less on the surrounding world than on our spirit – the internal voice that pushes one to seek new challenges.” Anatoli Boukreev – Above the Clouds

Read our blogposts – Courage to Face a Challenge and Courage to Face Fear.

Discover What You’re Capable Of

“The mountains allowed me to ask, and answer, my own question: ‘Am I good enough?’” Andrew Lock – Summit 8000

“Life had repeatedly shown me that the most difficult experiences are the ones that evoke the most meaningful lessons.” Lynn Hill – Climbing Free

“Mountains are like mirrors – it’s only when you’re up against them that you find out what you’re truly made of.” Source unknown

“The experience had left me along way from the end of my life’s clearly defined road. I understood that I needed to accomplish more, I had to endure more if I wanted to know what I was capable of as a mountain climber or as a human being. The end of each journey is the beginning of a new one, one that is longer and more difficult.” Anatoli Boukreev – Above the Clouds

You can also read our posts – Discover What You’re Capable Of and Discover Your Power

Joy of Natural Beauty

“You should see the foothills before you leave India, Isla. There’s no point in me trying to describe the drama of the Himalayas; it must be your own spiritual experience. People say that once you’ve seen it, you’ll never be quite the same as the Himalaya will have you in their thrall …”

“… How does anyone ever leave here unchanged?” I asked them. A zephyr trembled through the tea bushes in answer and I swore I could hear Kanchenjunga whisper that no one ever does.”

Both quotes from ‘The Tea Gardens’ by Fiona McIntosh

“I cannot express the internal peacefulness and joy I feel being here.” Alan Arnette blogpost

Rad our blogpost on Experiencing Joy.

The Real Battles Are Within Ourselves

Facing adversity with resilience, perseverance and mental toughness …

“Mountain climbing is all about being comfortable in uncomfortable places.” Sir Edmund Hillary

“Any good adventure has to have some uncertainty.” Cedar Wright

“The real difficulty exists between your ears” Chris Bonington – Ascent

“Whenever I was faced with another unexpected problem, I kept reminding myself, ‘its all part of the climb, I must accept whatever happens and keep moving forward” Lynn Hill – Climbing Free

Read our blogpost on Courage to Face Uncertainty

One Thing Leads To Another – There’s Always A Next Adventure

“While on top of Everest, I looked across the valley towards the great peak Makalu and mentally worked out a route about how it could be climbed. It showed me that even though I was standing on top of the world, it wasn’t the end of everything. I was still looking beyond to other interesting challenges.’’ Sir Edmund Hillary

“To me, the end of one adventure has always been the starting point for the next one.” Andrew Lock – Summit 8000

“Even at the trail’s end, the road to your next adventure awaits.” Heather Hawkins, after completing the Great Himalaya Trail

“A project ends well when it opens doors for you, when it makes you dream much more.” Kilian Jornet – Summits of My Life

Sometimes an Outer Journey is Needed for an Inner Transformation to Occur

“Walking meditation stills the mind, allowing pilgrims to be touched by the spirit of the place and find their own quiet centre within” Claire Scobie – Last Seen in Lhasa

“Pilgrimage leads nowhere and yet in the act of going the old life is left behind and the pilgrim returns renewed.” Jennifer Westwood – Sacred Journeys 

“Ultimately a pilgrimage begins and ends in one’s own heart” Dalai Lama

Appreciate Life

“Mountaineering is no different (to normal life) really. You have to get out of bed in the morning and get on with it – life is a gift and very short.” Simon Yates

“Westerners should be more mindful, more content with what the day brings and what they have. There is too much anxiety about the future … always thinking ahead instead of enjoying now, wanting more instead of being content with what you have, what you’ve been given.” Conversation with a local in Kathmandu.

“A vital part of reaching the top of a mountain is looking back at it alive from Base Camp. Your effort earns you the opportunity to understand your life more clearly and rejoice in it.” Anatoli Boukreev – Above the Clouds

New Perspectives and Life Changing Adventures

“Progress can only be made when you change your perception” Ueli Steck

“I was awe struck by the stunning natural beauty of the steep hillsides covered with such green vegetation… if you ever get a chance to trek in Nepal, do it. It will change your life.” Alan Arnette blogpost

“We are so preoccupied with the things right in front of us that we miss much of what goes on all around us … Looking up expands the size of our life … when our vista is wider our sense of self expands too. We aren’t so trapped in the small box we call me, my world and my worries. Looking up broadens our perspective.” Jan Chozen Bays, MD – How to Train A Wild Elephant

Read our blogpost on Life Changing Adventure.

Freedom to be Yourself

“For me, climbing has become less about reaching a summit or ticking off a new route. Now, it’s about feeling alone and connecting with the human spirit” Tokens of the Spirit – Rob Kettels 

“… soon followed by rationalisations and self-deceptions as you struggle to reconcile the void between the person you want to be and the person you fear you are.” High Exposure – David Breashears

“I think mountaineering helps us become a better version of ourselves through learning. I think mountaineering should be about self-exploration and making yourself a better human being.” Alan Arnette Facebook post

“The hardest thing in the world is to convince a bird that he is free and that he can prove it to himself if he’d just spend a little time practising.” Jonathan Livingstone Seagull – Richard Bach

“It is only in adventure that some people succeed in knowing themselves – in finding themselves.”  Andre Gide

You can read more in our post Experience Freedom

Experience a Sense of Balance and Fulfilment in the Mountains

“An astonishing happiness welled up in me, but I could not define it” 

“I felt in splendid form and as if, somehow, I had found a perfect balance within myself – was this, I wondered, the essence of happiness?”

“What an inconceivable experience is to attain one’s ideal and, at the very same moment, to fulfil oneself. I was stirred to the depths of my being. Never had I felt happiness like this – so intense and yet so pure.” All 3 quotes from Annapurna – Maurice Herzog

“This sense of peace increased to a conscious glow of happiness. We humans often experience happiness without recognising it; later we realise that at such and such a moment we were happy. But here, in that bivouac of ours, I was not only genuinely happy; I knew I was….the peace, the joy, the great satisfaction we all four enjoyed there …that particular happiness which is born of absorption in a common endeavour …” The White Spider – Heinrich Harrer

“For me, climbing is a form of exploration that inspires me to confront my own inner nature within nature. It’s a means of experiencing a state of consciousness where there are no distractions or expectations. This intuitive state of being is what allows me to experience moments of true freedom and harmony.” Climbing Free – Lynn Hill

Read more in our blogpost about Experiencing Balance.

Pleasure of the Simple Things in Life

“Simplicity, solitude and natural beauty are the real gems in life” Tommy Caldwell – The Push

“The contentment of doing one thing at a time” Peter Matthiessen – The Snow Leopard

“For a human to appreciate the mundane, habitual features of life, they must lose them for a while. I know this from my own experience. After spending three months in the mountains deprived of things that under normal circumstances I take for granted, I discover that I have another scale of values. Suddenly something unimportant becomes paramount in my thinking. In <fellow climber> Demiyanich’s case, <his wife> Tatiana’s borscht had assumed mythical proportions in his memory; likely it holds the aura of all his domestic comfort. As he spoke about his treasure, I openly envied him. I did not have that soup to remember and he had not climbed 8,000-meter peaks. At that moment in my mind, those two facts became equal. All my mountaintops were levelled to one bowl of soup.” Anatoli Boukreev – Above the Clouds

You can also read our post – Experience Simplicity

Live in the Now

“… physically and psychologically in the zone … the sustained, almost meditative intensity of concentration that’s required to keep ones footing in the outdoors, in conjunction with the sustained physical activity” Andrew Lock – Summit 8000

“As I practiced going the farthest while expending the least amount of energy I discovered a new consciousness in my climbing” Lynn Hill – Climbing Free

“Tuktens indifference to cold and hardship … is calm acceptance of everything that comes, and this is the source of inner quiet that makes his nondescript presence so impressive” Peter Matthiessen – The Snow Leopard

The Value of Connecting with Nature

“I get great satisfaction from the mental and physical challenge that the mountain environment provides. Through this I feel an intense reconnection with the natural world – a world that we are distanced and cosseted from in developed countries.” Simon Yates

“From the vantage of their lofty summits, I view my past, dream of the future, and with unusual acuteness I experience the present moment. That struggle renews my strength and clears my vision. In the mountains I celebrate creation, for on each journey I am reborn.” Anatoli Boukreev – Above the Clouds

“This is not a holiday – this is an adventure!” YouTube video on trekking in the Baltoro

Rice is Nice, Ice is not Nice

This secret is a practical lesson! It was a favourite saying of a Sherpa guide on one of our Himalayan treks. Thanks Lockie!

For more insights from the mountains see our Self-Discovery page.