The desire to climb mountains...
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The desire to climb mountains is one that many people find incomprehensible. There's nothing useful there, after all. When you get to the top, you just have to go down again. Nonetheless, anyone who has ever stood atop even a lesser peak of a minor range, and looked across the expansion beneath knows this to be an unequalled experience. No one remains unchanged by it. The mountaintop remains in one's memory as a special time and place, whether or not we ever return. George Leigh-Mallory is alleged to have said that he wanted to climb Mount Everest "because it is there." "There" is a place above everywhere else on this earth, a point where the normal temperature is -40ø, where nothing can live for long, and the few people who struggle to it risk their very lives to do so. Mallory himself died on the mountain in 1924, perhaps on the way up, perhaps having actually reached the summit. His eyes were set on what was above, and he gave his life in its pursuit. -- Walker
