I’m going to have to be real careful not to accept any gifts from them in the future because they will think they have bought my respect. - Jon Krakauer

Most climbers aren't in fact deranged, they're just infected with a particularly virulent strain of the Human Condition.

Achieving the summit of a mountain was tangible, immutable, concrete. The incumbent hazards lent the activity a seriousness of purpose that was sorely missing from the rest of my life. I thrilled in the fresh perspective that came from the tipping the ordinary plane of existence on end.

Launching a nice little war to divert national attention was a gambit no less appealing to nineteenth-century politicians than it is to their present-day counterparts.