Quotes

Quote 341 of 521

Later that day, Kropp, the Swedish soloist, passed Camp Two on his way
down the mountain, looking utterly worked. Three days earlier, under
clear skies, he'd made it to just below the South Summit and was no
more than an hour from the top when he decided to turn around. He had
been climbing without supplemental oxygen, the hour had been
late—2 P.M., to be exact—and he'd believed that if he'd kept
going, he'd have been too tired to descend safely.

"To turn around that close to the summit," Hall mused, shaking his
head. "That showed incredibly good judgment on young Gòran's
part. I'm impressed." Sticking to your predetermined turn-around
time—that was the most important rule on the mountain. Over the
previous month, Rob had lectured us repeatedly on this point. Our
turn-around time, he said, would probably be 1 P.M., and no matter how
close we were to the top, we were to abide by it. "With enough
determination, any bloody idiot can get up this hill," Hall said. "The
trick is to get back down alive."

John Krakauer, "Into Thin Air", <cite>Outside
		   Magazine</cite>, September 1996
		   [Kropp was "a young Swede who had ridden a bicycle
		   all the way to Nepal from Stockholm"]
		   http://outside.away.com/outside/destinations/199609/199609_into_thin_air_7.html

Tags: southsummit supplementaloxygen bloodyidiot turnaroundtime soloist clearskies amp judgment camptwo