Find quotes from this novel, with commentary from Shmoop. Pick a theme below to begin.
Suffering Quotes
"Are you not feeling good, Jon?" he mocked. "This is only Camp One, six thousand meters. The air here is still very thick" (8.6)
Perseverance Quotes
Why did veteran Himalayan guides keep moving upward, ushering a gaggle of relatively inexperienced amateurs […] into an apparent death trap? (1.8)
Awe and Amazement Quotes
Four hundred vertical feet above, where the summit was still washed in bright sunlight under and immaculate cobalt sky, my compadres dallied to memorialize their arrival at the apex of the planet....
Man vs. the Natural World Quotes
Once Everest was determined to be the highest summit on earth, it was only a matter of time before people decided that Everest needed to be climbed. (2.7)
Technology and Modernization Quotes
The traffic on […] Everest has multiplied at an astonishing rate. And to meet the demand, the number of commercial enterprises […] has multiplied correspondingly. (2.37)
Mortality Quotes
Because the climbing route wove under […] hundreds of these unstable towers, each trip through the Icefall was a little like playing a round of Russian roulette. (6.12)
Foreignness and "The Other" Quotes
Unable to comprehend that this brown-skinned woman of the hill was addressing him in perfectly enunciated King's English, [he] continued to employ his comical pidgin argot. (4.13)
Ambition Quotes
Fischer made a number of impressive ascents that earned him a modicum of local renown, but celebrity in the world of the climbing community eluded him. (5.39)