The truth is, I'm just a rough old New Zealander who has enjoyed many challenges in his life.
Human life is far more important than just getting to the top of a mountain.
You don't have to be a hero to accomplish great things---to compete. You can just be an ordinary chap, sufficiently motivated to reach challenging goals.
If you cannot understand that there is something in man which responds to the challenge of this mountain and goes out to meet it, that the struggle is the struggle of life itself upward and forever upward, then you won't see why we go.