Quotes from Jeff Lowe

I think I know now that you can't do this sort of climbing and have a domestic side. You're not a practicing father if you're not there. You're maybe a visiting father.

I hate big shots of adrenaline. It means you don't have enough margin.

I will still probably die of aspiration-caused pneumonia. I can go along breathing well, then I might aspirate on something, develop pneumonia and be gone in a week.

I've chosen to live my life in love and that has made even the most trying times beautiful experiences.

Mom would pack our lunch and send us off with no supervision. There were enough of us so that if she lost a few, there would still be plenty left.

Sometimes I spent more time planning a climb than doing it.

I think part of my business problems stemmed from a feeling that I had to be more than a good climber, that I had to do something more 'meaningful.' And that may come from my father.

The kind of climbing I like is fast and as free as possible of gadgetry.

I may have had some symptoms as early as 1998 - dizziness, vision problems, balance. Anyway, it's been a progression, it hasn't stopped since I first noticed it. Each year there is a considerable decline.

I could have saved my marriage if I had chosen to. But when I was forced to take a new look, I realized, 'Hey, it's not what I really want - it's a weird thing, but climbing is still at the center.'

You can base your life in fear or you can base your life in love. Fear leads to negative results even in times that are basically good. On the other hand, love powers the universe.

A friend once told me that I was always so manipulative, 'a silver-tongued devil,' as he put it. I was never aware of it.

The challenges of adventure, rock climbing and alpinism trained me well for dealing with the slow neurodegenerative malady I'm experiencing.

I used to think that my business mirrored my climbing - if I wasn't failing at something, I just wasn't trying anything hard enough.

Eight-man teams drilling expansion bolts in rocks? Sorry, that's not climbing - that's engineering.

I mean any fool can hurl themselves at a climb that is beyond their abilities to safely negotiate. You may get away with such an approach nine times, but the tenth time you don't come back.

I was great at testing products at 20,000 feet, but talking them up to buyers? No, not really.

I've always pushed my body way too hard, gone days without eating at 20,000 feet, and caught every exotic bug that didn't kill me.

We as mountaineers have had a leading role in the destruction of the mountain wilderness environment that we practice our sport in.

Climbing is wildly diverse, ranging from the rock-climbing wall at the local health club to the cutting edge of major Himalayan Alpine ascents.

You have to have a lot of experience and confidence and a willingness to go down when things aren't right and try again. That's when people in the Himalayas get hurt, when they don't have the knowledge or willingness to retreat when necessary. There's no place for a macho attitude in the Himalayas. It's what gets people killed.

I used to think aging was a scam, a total abdication of your self. Well, aging's not a scam, but quitting is.

More than five decades of hands grated by cracks. Whole body aching from long days of big-wall hauling. Tiny tents, bivy sacs, snow caves lashed by hurricane sleet. Frozen fingers and toes. Migraines and altitude malaise. Not knowing what's to come. It doesn't have to be fun to be fun.

I never did end up getting any skills that are marketable in a traditional sense, but I have used my knowledge of the mountains, and I have no regrets.