On 1/06/2004 Edward Frillypants wrote:
>> Another, from Reinhold Messner????
>
>> There are only two grades in climbing, climbs I can do, and those I
>can't.
>
>Sounds like Don Whillans?
>
>If you want a quote from Messner there is "I have never clipped a bolt
>in my life".
>
>
No, the first quote is definitely Reinhold Messner.
A good quote from Whillans, though, as recounted by Greg Child in "Thin Air" - Whillans, on the way to Everest, was approached by a small boy in Kathmandu, who asked why Whillans was so much bigger (fatter) than the other members of the expedition, to which Whillans replied "In two weeks time I'll be slim, an they'll be dead"
And a quote from Whillans in "Eiger, Wall of Death". While retreating from the wall as the weather deteriorated, Whillans and Bonnington are passed by a Japanese pair hastily making their way up the wall. Whillans asks them, "are you 'eaded up in this weather" to which they reply "yes, yes, up, always up". Whillans says to Bonnington with a grin "They're going up alright, but much 'igher than they think" |