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 Beck Weathers Interview
"...don't get caught up in the moment..."

MountainZone.com: Given the experiences that you've had in climbing and so forth, what would you say if one of your children or eventually one of your grandchildren say, "Hey I want to go climb Everest?"

Weathers: I'm absolutely clear on my view on that. I have a good friend of mine that runs a company called 'Thugs 'R Us' and that kid's going to look pretty good with those broken knee caps... If you're going to pursue a dream, that's good if it's a good dream. Simply getting excited about going into a place like Everest is not a sufficient reason to be there. What kills you up there is largely random. If that were not true, then there wouldn't be so many strong, experienced individuals who have given up their lives in high mountains.

And so you got to realize and, one of the parts of this story that I write in this, is that there are always individuals who remain. And if you go up there and get yourself killed, and it's like 'so what?' You're not going to have to deal with it. It's everybody else who is still back home, and if you take even on our day, of the two individuals who got maimed and the eight individuals that died, and you look at all the mothers, and fathers, and brothers, and sisters, and spouses, and sons, and daughters, and friends, and co-workers and you expand that circle, you get to be a lot of individuals whose lives are going to be forever altered and most of it in a very unpleasant way. So I think you have to be very careful that you don't get caught up in the moment and then end the denial that it can't happen to you because it certainly can.



MORE: All Everest | Ed Viesturs | Conrad Anker


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