There is no joy involved in climbing mountains, there is simply the challenge, the self-invented challenge, the play.

I learned a lot from more experienced mountaineers, such as Peter Habeler, but by the time I was about 21 I reckoned I had learned all that I needed to make me technically self-sufficient anywhere.

If you have a high-way on Everest, you don't meet the mountain. If everything is prepared, and you have a guide who is responsible for your security, you cannot meet the mountain. Meeting mountains is only possible if you ... are out there in self-sufficiency.

On Mount Everest it feels as if you are in the womb, but on K2 you are always out on the edge.

I am responsible for my brother's death. I feel the guilt of having survived. People say, 'You should be happy. You survived.' But I have this feeling that it is not right that I am alive.

By climbing mountains we were not learning how big we were. We were finding out how breakable, how weak and how full of fear we are.

All the Yeti footprints are all the same bear. The Yeti isn't a fantastic figure. The Yeti is reality.

First, I am afraid to die and I love to live. But an adventure is only an adventure when there is the threat of dying.

The cliches that circulate in the German media about Joachim Sauer are a total fallacy. The fact is that he's his own man. He's witty, he's profound, he can be incredibly funny, and he's an extremely bright guy.

The art of climbing is the art of survival. The best climber is the man or woman going in the most crazy places but surviving.

Out of all the climbers of this generation, I was the one who became known to the larger public. Many of them -- not all of them, but many of them -- understood they had only one chance to use me for their personal gain. And it's very easy to use me.

I am not made for lonely expeditions. In the sixties, I climbed during the day so I wouldn't have to be alone. I finally learned to stay up for weeks in the high altitude all by my own without being afraid.

I would never bring a flag on the summit. If somebody is climbing for a country he is not normal, he is sick.

Traditional alpinism is slowly disappearing. It is becoming sport, indoors on small walls with holds where you cannot really fall.

The Dolomites are the most beautiful rock mountains in the world, but in a few million years they will just be desert.

At 30 I was not quiet enough inside myself. At 40 I was not rich enough. At 50 I was still hoping to change the world.

Albert Frederick Mummery and Chris Bonington are the British climbers I most admire.

On your own, relying on yourself, you will never feel you are stronger than the mountain, and your respect for the peak grows.

Once you lose your credibility, you can never restore it.

Člověk by měl chodit na hory jen se sobě rovnými.