You can’t coach desire, and no matter how fancy your training plan or how high your stated goals are, it comes down to getting out the door and doing the work day after day.

Alpinism places unique demands on its practitioners.

Conventional sports have undergone an evolution in training methods during the last fifty years. Curiosity and the inherent improvement brought about by competition have driven this evolution to a state of high refinement such that today's athletes have a very specialized approach to training at the elite levels.

I can respect the gulf that separates alpinism from a running race and still appreciate that the physiology that accounts for endurance is the same if you are running a foot race in the city park or front pointing up the second ice field on the north face of the Eiger.

Traveling fast over complex technical terrain requires a high level of technical ability and the endurance to support it. These two quite divergent capabilities need to be developed over years of practice. Omitting either limits your potential.

Climbers are a universal tribe: we share the knowledge that things are not important. Experience is important. Feeling is important.

You will never exploit your full technical capacity if your fitness remains a weak link.

In the mountains, fatigue is the biggest controllable limitation that will come between you and success.

The simpler we make things, the richer the experiences become.

Within alpinism's narrow framework we seek transcendence and relentlessly pursue what remains hidden from us on flat ground: our true selves.