Big mountains are a completely different world: snow, ice, rocks, sky, and thin air. You cannot conquer them, only rise to their height for a short time; and for that they demand a great deal. The struggle is not with the enemy, or a competitor like in sports, but with yourself, with the feelings of weakness and inadequacy. That struggle appeals to me. It is why I became a mountaineer.

Anatoli Boukreev

Categorized in : Sports Struggle Rocks

Mountains are cathedrals: grand and pure, the houses of my religion. I go to them as humans go to worship...From their lofty summits, I view my past, dream of the future, and with unusual acuity I am allowed to experience the present moment. My strength renewed, my vision cleared, in the mountains I celebrate creation. On each journey I am reborn.

Anatoli Boukreev

journey dream past

Mountains are not stadiums where I satisfy my ambition to achieve, they are the cathedrals where I practice my religion.

Anatoli Boukreev

climbing ambition practice

Honestly, I do not experience fear in the mountains. On the contraryI feel my shoulders straightening, squaring, like the birds as they straighten their wings. I enjoy the freedom and the altitude. It is only when I return to life below that I feel the world's weight on my shoulders.

Anatoli Boukreev

mountain wings bird

Mountains have the power to call us into their realms and there, left forever, are our friends whose great souls were longing for the heights. Do not forget the mountaineers who have not returned from the summits.

Anatoli Boukreev

mountain soul forever

I offer my expertise and experience for hire in order to help a group of people reach the summit.

Anatoli Boukreev

groups order people

I don't know what being an Everest guide means. I am a coach, not a guide.

Anatoli Boukreev

guide-me guides mean

A review of summit day photographs will show that I was clothed in the latest, highest quality, high altitude gear, comparable, if not better, than that worn by the other members of our expedition.

Anatoli Boukreev

gears quality travel

I travel to Jakarta, I see what an important country it is. I've been working with them for a year.

Anatoli Boukreev

country years travel

I am not sure the others are as committed as Rob Hall and Scott Fischer. I think there is more business now, and I know it will be impossible to stop this Everest business.

Anatoli Boukreev

fischer impossible thinking

I cannot say to be glad or not glad to be on Everest. It is my life. I have opportunity to be here, so I am here.

Anatoli Boukreev

opportunity inspire life

How could the adventure seeker of today find satisfaction with the level of performance that was a standard set more than 40 years ago ?

Anatoli Boukreev

standards-set climbing adventure

People respected my experience, they hire me, they pay me what I am worth to coach their team.

Anatoli Boukreev

teamwork pay people

I think that people ran out of oxygen and don't really know what happened up there, maybe some of them just made things up because they weren't sure what had happened.

Anatoli Boukreev

oxygen athlete thinking

Climbing is what I do.

Anatoli Boukreev

climbing hiking

This year my role is clear: I am a coach, a coach to sportsmen.

Anatoli Boukreev

clear roles years

I respect Everest very much.

Anatoli Boukreev

everest

I explained I wanted to descend as quickly as possible to camp IV in order to warm myself and gather a supply of hot drink and oxygen in the event I might need to go back up the mountain to assist descending climbers.

Anatoli Boukreev

myself mountain drink hot

Concerned that others were not coming onto the summit and because I had no radio link to those below me, I began to wonder if there were difficulties down the mountain. I made the decision to descend.

Anatoli Boukreev

down me mountain decision

I said to Scott that the ascent seemed to be going slowly and that I was concerned descending climbers could possibly run out of oxygen before their return to camp IV.

Anatoli Boukreev

going run return said

I want this book to be facts, to be important, to be history.

Anatoli Boukreev

important book history facts