You will become a prisoner of other people’s judgment in your desire of proving self-worth. You will climb blinded and feel an immense failure if not summiting. Or if successful - go home, celebrate your triumph and fame, and when the lights eventually are turned towards someone else, end up empty, again chasing new ways to get the brief applauses and acknowledgments.

Meantime you’ll lose who you really are, what you really would like to experience - should there not have to be that moment of sensation in it every time. Perhaps you would like to sail around the world - although it has been done hundreds of time before, learn to paint, or try to figure out what Dolphins talk about.

It is truly marvelous to accomplish awesome, remarkable things and explore the unknown. Yet, your dreams should be pursued because they are sprung out of your own curiosity, not just a desire to impress. Be sure to climb Everest for yourself. Take great care to live free.

Take the time to really take in the experience.

Look at the shimmering rocks beneath your feet. Search them for rubies and gold. Watch the sparkling avalanches in silent camps at night. Contemplate over the distant stars of the black Universe.

Look out for the imposing, mysterious mountain ghost when the mountain is projected towards a wall of raindrops. Search for the dancing rainbow cloud on the summit of Everest at sunrise.

Peer into the black, bottomless crevasses and their strange, underground worlds. Watch the pinnacles of ice shimmering in turquoise and emerald green in the icefall. Marvel at the majestic summits of the Himalayan giants sparkling in the sun at C3.

Listen to the roaring jetwind. Watch the atmosphere darken when you approach its very edge. Observe the golden brown plateau of Tibet opposite the green valleys of Nepal.

Make a silent prayer for those you pass by, resting forever in the brace of Everest.

Look closely into the faces of your fellow climbers, disheartened by fear, determined by hope, and your own eyes in the mirror when you think that there is nothing more left in you...

Take the experience back home with you. Forever remember that there are all kinds of remarkable things in this world to experience, a beauty and drama beyond our wildest imagination. All we have to do is to let our minds run towards our dreams, face our fears and try to accomplish the
worthwhile. We might succeed or not, that’s not important.