Longing for the higher altitudes

Because I am longing for the mountains I go to Rene Daumal for this week's inspiration.

There is one degree of separation between Rene and myself, he died on the same day I was born, 28 years before. He was a writer and poet, and I think in this short passage gives the best explanation of why someone might go through such discomfort to climb a mountain.

"You cannot stay on the summit forever; you have to come down again.
So why bother in the first place?
Just this: What is above knows what is below, but what is below does not know what is above.
One climbs, one sees.
One descends, one sees no longer, but one has seen.
There is an art of conducting oneself in the lower regions by the memory of what one saw higher up.
When one can no longer see, one can at least still know."

Rene Daumal, March 1908 - May 1944

Climbing Kalapatar (5545m), view of Everest Base Camp middle left, 

with Khumbu Icefall snaking to the right