“It is because [mountains] have so much to give and give it so lavishly to those who will wrestle with them that men love the mountains and go back to them again and again.”

-Sir Francis Younghusband, British explorer and mountaineer, 1863-1942.

Sir Francis Younghusband wrote this in the introduction to the 1922 book Mount Everest: The Reconnaissance, 1921. Younghusband was a British explorer who led early expeditions into the Himalaya, and was a major influence on legendary mountaineer George Mallory. In this quote, he describes the struggle and reward that one gets from climbing mountains, as well as the magnetism mountains carry for those who pursue their summits. It’s part of a larger passage, which follows:

It is only on the mountain side, breathing its pure air, buffeting against its storms, testing their nerve, running hair-breadth risks, exercising their intelligence and judgement, feeling their manhood and looking on Nature face to face and with open heart and mind that they are truly happy. For these men days on the mountain are days when they really live. And as the cobwebs in their brains get blown away, as the blood begins to course refreshingly through their veins, as all their faculties become tuned up and their whole being becomes more sensitive, they detect appeals from Nature they had never heard before and see beauties which are revealed only to those who win them. They may not at the moment be aware of the deepest impressions they are receiving. But to those who have struggled with them the mountains reveal beauties they will not disclose to those who make no effort. That is the reward the mountains give to effort. And it is because they have so much to give and give it so lavishly to those who will wrestle with them that men love the mountains and go back to them again and again.

And naturally the mountains reserve their choice gifts for those who stand upon their summits. The climber’s vision is then no longer confined and enclosed. He can see now all round. His width of outlook is enlarged to its full extremity. He sees in every direction. He has a sense of being raised above the world and being proudly conscious that he has raised himself there by his own exertions, he has a peculiar satisfaction and for the time forgets all frets and worries in the serener atmosphere in which he now for a moment dwells.

And it is only for a moment that he can dwell there. For men cannot always live on the heights. They must come down to the plains again and engage in the practical life of the world. But the vision from the heights never leaves them. They want to return there. They want to reach a higher height.

In these words, Younghusband is describing the human need for verticality and the addictive nature of achieving it. To stand on the summit of a mountain after climbing it is to feel what verticality means to the human spirit.


Quotes taken from Younghusband, Sir Francis. “Introduction.” In Mount Everest: The Reconnaissance, 1921, edited by C.K. Howard-Bury, 1-20. New York: Longmans, Green and Co., 1922.