I climb because it’s the way I exist in the world, the way I move, and the way I express myself. climbing has given me most of the things I love in life.

from Steph Davis’s “High Infatuation”: “…climbing has never been merely about athletics. climbing has shown me how to look beyond myself and my own desires. it has taught me how to be part of a community, rather than living in a narrow world of my own making. I have learned, painfully, how to accept help from others. I have learned that my powerful emotions can be my greatest strength, as well as my greatest weakness. physically and intellectually, climbing has tugged me into the larger world, beyond my own culture and comfort zone. above all, climbing has shown me the existence of forces beyond the seen world. it has taught me to ponder the meaning of reality. it has shown me that I am small.”

via Dustin Glasner