To travel, to experience and learn: that is to live.
We look up. For weeks, for months, that is all we have done. Look up. And there it is-the top of Everest. Only it is different now: so near, so close, only a little more than a thousand feet above us. It is no longer just a dream, a high dream in the sky, but a real and solid thing, a thing of rock and snow, that men can climb. We make ready. We will climb it. This time, with God's help, we will climb on to the end.
I needed to go . . . the pull of Everest was stronger for me than any force on earth.
It has been a long road. From a mountain coolie, a bearer of loads, to a wearer of a coat with rows of medals who is carried about in planes and worries about income tax.
I have climbed my mountain, but I must still live my life.
If it is a shame to be the second man on Mount Everest, then I will have to live with this shame.
If I know I make this much trouble, I never climb Everest.
I hope my twin brother will look exactly like me but more sporty.
