Alaska Has Long Been A Magnet For

The Desert Sharpened The Sweet Ache Of His Longing, Amplified It, Gave Shape To It In Sere Geology And Clean Slant Of Light.

The Thing That Is Most Beautiful About Antarctica For Me Is The Light. It's Like No Other Light On Earth, Because The Air Is So Free Of Impurities. You Get Drugged By It, Like When You Listen To One Of Your Favorite Songs. The Light There Is A Mood-enhancing Substance.

I'm Intrigued By Fanatics - People Who Are Seduced By The Promise, Or The Illusion, Of The Absolute.

As A Means Of Motivating People To Be Cruel Or Inhumane-as A Means Of Inciting Evil, To Borrow The Vocabulary Of The Devout-there May Be No More Potent Force Than Religion.

Early On A Difficult Climb, Especially A Solo Climb, You’re Hyper-aware Of The Abyss Pulling At Your Back, Constantly Feeling Its Call, Its Immense Hunger. To Resist Takes Tremendous Conscious Effort, You Don’t Dare Let Your Guard Down For An Instant. The Void Puts You On Edge, Makes Your Movements Tentative And Clumsy. But As The Climb Continues, You Grow Accustomed To The Exposure, You Get Used To Rubbing Shoulders With Doom, You Come To Believe In The Reliability Of Your Hands And Feet And Head. You Learn To Trust Your Self-control.