"On the summit, your soul becomes part of the mountain. It makes you feel alive."

-Nirmal “Nims” Purja, Nepalese mountaineer, born 1983.

This quote comes from the 2020 documentary 14 Peaks: Nothing Is Impossible. It tells the story of Nepalese mountaineer Nims Purja and his quest to summit all 14 of the world’s tallest mountains within 7 months. In this quote, he’s describing the feeling of standing on a mountain summit. It’s the feeling of achieving verticality, and he describes it as feeling alive and feeling a spiritual connection the mountain.