“Straddling the top of the world, one foot in China and the other in Nepal, I cleared the ice from my oxygen mask, hunched a shoulder against the wind, and stared absently down at the vastness of Tibet.”

—  Jon Krakauer , book Into Thin Air

Source: Into Thin Air (1997), Ch. 1.
Context: Straddling the top of the world, one foot in China and the other in Nepal, I cleared the ice from my oxygen mask, hunched a shoulder against the wind, and stared absently down at the vastness of Tibet. I understood on some dim, detached level that the sweep of earth beneath my feet was a spectacular sight. I'd been fantasizing about this moment, and the release of emotion that would accompany it, for many months. But now that I was finally here, actually standing on the summit of Mount Everest, I just couldn't summon the energy to care.

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "Straddling the top of the world, one foot in China and the other in Nepal, I cleared the ice from my oxygen mask, hunch…" by Jon Krakauer?
Jon Krakauer photo
Jon Krakauer 54
American outdoors writer and journalist 1954

Related quotes

Stephen Vincent Benét photo

“And yet I strove — and I was fire
And ice — and fire and ice were one
In one vast hunger of desire.”

Stephen Vincent Benét (1898–1943) poet, short story writer, novelist

Young Adventure (1918), The Quality of Courage
Context: p>The iron ice stung like a goad,
Slashing the torn shoes from my feet,
And all the air was bitter sleet. And all the land was cramped with snow,
Steel-strong and fierce and glimmering wan,
Like pale plains of obsidian.
— And yet I strove — and I was fire
And ice — and fire and ice were one
In one vast hunger of desire.</p

“Sitting there that day, I knew that the only thing I could do was keep putting one foot in front of the other, hoping none of the secrets on my shoulders would make me lose my balance.”

Ally Carter I'd Tell You I Love You, But Then I'd Have to Kill You

Source: I'd Tell You I Love You, But Then I'd Have to Kill You

Stephen Vincent Benét photo

“The iron ice stung like a goad,
Slashing the torn shoes from my feet,
And all the air was bitter sleet. And all the land was cramped with snow,
Steel-strong and fierce and glimmering wan,
Like pale plains of obsidian.
— And yet I strove — and I was fire
And ice — and fire and ice were one
In one vast hunger of desire.”

Stephen Vincent Benét (1898–1943) poet, short story writer, novelist

Source: Young Adventure (1918), The Quality of Courage

Tenzin Gyatso photo

“The Tibetan state is located between two of the world's great powers, India and China. Good relations between these powers are crucial for world peace. Tibet has an important role to play.”

Tenzin Gyatso (1935) spiritual leader of Tibet

Dalai Lama honours Tintin and Tutu, BBC (Friday, 2 June 2006) http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/5040198.stm

Claudette Colvin photo

“I felt like Sojourner Truth was pushing down on one shoulder and Harriet Tubman was pushing down on the other, saying, 'Sit down girl!”

Claudette Colvin (1939) African-American civil rights movement leader

I was glued to my seat.
Claudette Colvin https://www.biography.com/people/claudette-colvin-11378 at biograph.com, accessed 27 July 2018

“I raised my foot and deliberately stomped on the bridge. "This is my foot. I put it down. Deal with it.”

Ilona Andrews American husband-and-wife novelist duo

Source: Magic Breaks

Virginia Woolf photo

“Alone, I often fall down into nothingness. I must push my foot stealthily lest I should fall off the edge of the world into nothingness. I have to bang my head against some hard door to call myself back to the body.”

Virginia Woolf book The Waves

Source: The Waves

A.E. Housman photo

“But from my grave across my brow
Plays no wind of healing now,
And fire and ice within me fight
Beneath the suffocating night.”

A.E. Housman book A Shropshire Lad

No. 30, st. 4.
A Shropshire Lad (1896)

Gregory of Nyssa photo

“People who look down from some high peak on a vast sea below, probably feel what my mind has felt, looking out from the sublime words of the Lord as from a mountain-top at the inexhaustible depth of their meaning.”

Gregory of Nyssa (335–395) bishop of Nyssa

Homilies on the Beautitudes VI: 1, tr. S. Hall, in H. R. Drobner and A. Viciano (edd.), Gregory of Nyssa: Homilies on the Beatitudes: An English Version and Supporting Studies (Brill, Leiden, 2000).

Elton John photo

“You could never know what it's like
Your blood like winter freezes just like ice
And there's a cold lonely light that shines from you
You'll wind up like the wreck you hide behind that mask you use”

Elton John (1947) English rock singer-songwriter, composer and pianist

Source: Song I'm Still Standing

Related topics