High Altitude Leadership: What the World's Most Forbidding Peaks Teach Us About Success

Chapter 6. Danger #6 COWARDICE

I think risk is important. I don't care if it's a great financial risk or a physical risk.

You only get out of something what you put into it and the fact that you are willing to risk something means that you are going to get a lot more out of it.

—Yvon Chouinard, climber, surfer, and founder of Patagonia, the clothing company

Location: Broad Peak, Pakistan: First Attempt

All the good weather came in June while we trekked to base camp and set up lower camps. Once we were ready to make some real summit bids, the deep snow and bad weather conspired against us. In early July, most of the team collected at Camp 2 on Broad Peak, despite our normal pattern of each person doing whatever he or she pleased. I had been working ...