Top 25 Jeff Lowe Quotes

A friend once told me that I was always so manipulative, ‘a silver-tongued devil,’ as he put it. I was never aware of it.

It went way beyond just sex with Catherine. It was more like recognizing a time of shared destiny of our souls. We were both born to climb, and we each glimpsed the possibility of the perfect partner in the other.

The idea of metanoia returns again and again in my life. The purpose of life is to see what you do when challenges come your way, and the value in that experience is seeing how you handle those challenges.

I’ve chosen to live my life in love and that has made even the most trying times beautiful experiences.

I still value the adventurous side, confronting the mountain on its terms, more than I value actual success in terms of getting to the top. That has very little meaning to me.

I could have saved my marriage if I had chosen to. But when I was forced to take a new look, I realized, ‘Hey, it’s not what I really want – it’s a weird thing, but climbing is still at the center.’

The kind of climbing I like is fast and as free as possible of gadgetry.

I think I know now that you can’t do this sort of climbing and have a domestic side. You’re not a practicing father if you’re not there. You’re maybe a visiting father.

I will still probably die of aspiration-caused pneumonia. I can go along breathing well, then I might aspirate on something, develop pneumonia and be gone in a week.

I never did end up getting any skills that are marketable in a traditional sense, but I have used my knowledge of the mountains, and I have no regrets.

I’ve been mistagged. I like ice climbing, but I do a lot more rock climbing. Ice is just more mysterious and changeable than rock.

I mean any fool can hurl themselves at a climb that is beyond their abilities to safely negotiate. You may get away with such an approach nine times, but the tenth time you don’t come back.

Wall climbing is an offshoot of the more traditional sport of mountain climbing. It is very difficult; one must combine a great deal of stamina with the ability of a world-class gymnast.

Mom would pack our lunch and send us off with no supervision. There were enough of us so that if she lost a few, there would still be plenty left.

I have always felt that no climb is worth losing the tip of a little toe.

The challenges of adventure, rock climbing and alpinism trained me well for dealing with the slow neurodegenerative malady I’m experiencing.

Hunters get lost all the time. There’s just an outcry against climbers because a lot of people don’t understand climbers and they think they’re crazy.

I think part of my business problems stemmed from a feeling that I had to be more than a good climber, that I had to do something more ‘meaningful.’ And that may come from my father.

Climbing is wildly diverse, ranging from the rock-climbing wall at the local health club to the cutting edge of major Himalayan Alpine ascents.

I used to think aging was a scam, a total abdication of your self. Well, aging’s not a scam, but quitting is.

I was great at testing products at 20,000 feet, but talking them up to buyers? No, not really.

Sometimes I spent more time planning a climb than doing it.

More than five decades of hands grated by cracks. Whole body aching from long days of big-wall hauling. Tiny tents, bivy sacs, snow caves lashed by hurricane sleet. Frozen fingers and toes. Migraines and altitude malaise. Not knowing what’s to come. It doesn’t have to be fun to be fun.

For me there’s no future. All I’m interested in is now.

I used to think that my business mirrored my climbing – if I wasn’t failing at something, I just wasn’t trying anything hard enough.