I really haven't liked the commercialization of mountaineering, particularly of Mt. Everest. By paying $65,000, you can be conducted to the summit by a couple of good guides.
Interpretation
Hillary expresses concern over the commercialization of climbing, particularly the ethics of paying to reach summits like Everest.
In this quote, Edmund Hillary critiques the growing trend of commercializing mountaineering, especially the ascent of Mount Everest. He highlights how the practice of charging exorbitant fees to guide climbers to the summit detracts from the spirit of adventure and challenge that mountaineering represents, suggesting that it transforms a once-serious pursuit into a mere consumer experience, devoid of the risks and merits that come with true exploration.
In practice
During a presentation on the ethics of adventure tourism, this quote can illustrate the debate on commercialization.
I think I mainly climb mountains because I get a great deal of enjoyment out of it. I never attempt to analyze these things too thoroughly, but I think that all mountaineers do get a great deal of satisfaction out of overcoming some challenge which they think is very difficult for them, or which perhaps may be a little dangerous.
Despite all I have seen and experiences, I still get the same thrill out of glimpsing a tiny patch of snow in a high mountain gully and feel the same urge to climb toward it.
I've always hated the danger part of climbing, and it's great to come down again because it's safe.
Even when you're 50, you can make the effort to improve your standards.
Many people have been getting too casual about climbing Everest. I forecast a disaster many times.
I am a lucky man. I have had a dream and it has come true, and that is not a thing that happens often to men.
Some days in late August at home are like this, the air thin and eager like this, with something in it sad and nostalgic and familiar.
When I go to the mountains, I intuitively know my place in the world much better through these experiences. The more intense they are, the better I know myself, and the more I am able to challenge myself.
The greatest delight which the fields and woods minister is the suggestion of an occult relation.
Water is the exile, carried back in cans and flasks, the ghost between your hands and your mouth.
The first steps in Agriculture, Astronomy, Zoology, (those first steps which the farmer, the hunter, and the sailor take,) teach that nature's dice are always loaded; that in her heaps and rubbish are concealed sure and useful results.
...We're allotted a little space on earth and that we survive in that wilderness that can take back what it has given, as easily as blowing its breath on us or sending the sea to tell us we are not so big. When we forget how close the wilderness is in the night, my grandpa said, someday it will come in and get us, for we will have forgotten how terrible and real it can be.
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