1.
When you ride your bike, you're working your legs, but your mind is on a treadmill. When you play chess, your mind is clicking along, but your body is stagnating. Climbing brings it together in a beautiful, magical way. The adrenaline is flowing, and it's flowing all the time.
Pat Ament
2.
Newspapers ascribe the word "climber" to any person who falls in the mountains or off a rock. To refer to anyone who falls in the mountains as... a climber... is as factual as to say that anyone who sits down at a piano is a pianist.
Pat Ament
3.
The whole idea of comparing climbers is ludicrous. It would be like sitting Van Gogh down with Rembrandt and saying, Ready, get set, go.
Pat Ament
4.
What one leads on-sight, in good, strong style, safely, is what one's ability is.
Pat Ament
5.
Riding a bike works your legs but not your brain. Playing chess works your mind but not your body. Climbing brings it all together.
Pat Ament
6.
Now I approach climbing differently. I have learned less effort and energy, less obsession, and more feeling, as with piano, more emphasis and less frenzy.
Pat Ament
