People often ask: Why do you do this, How about the risks, How about the people you love, For what purpose? For me, it is simple, clear and transparent, but for many people it is not, so let me try a simple reply.

In its most basic way, in its essence, mountaineering is like any other sport: a way to connect my mind and body, to push myself through a challenge, to keep healthy, to get better at overcoming challenges while keeping a positive mindset.

Of course, Mountaineering goes much deeper than this and offers me deeper benefits. In achieving a difficult feat, a challenge not easily available, difficult to overcome, requiring months of planning, physical and mental training without even the slimmest guarantee of summit success, I find a sense of purpose. It is like all of Life itself, but extremely condensed over a few weeks or months. In Life, we do not know if we will succeed or fail, we do not know if we will be happy or sad, we face constant challenges but we find ways to overcome them and we choose the path that we want, the harder and more beautiful or the easier and sometimes less rewarding.

I believe that going on an expedition & trying to reach the summit is like life’s great moments: falling in love, helping someone in need, inspiring others, getting married, having a child, being a good employee or even signing a new deal. These are all strong life events that may or may not happen during a lifetime, but each of these events requires great efforts, perseverance and dedication in order to achieve.

This quest for a higher purpose is strongly rooted into mother nature’s most beautiful scenery. Peaks, glaciers, plateaus, clouds, blue crevasses. Each new step on the mountain reveals breathtaking views. This connection with nature elevates the mind to spiritual levels. As Nature decides of the outcome of the expedition, it humbles me by its strength and I learn deep respect and patience from it. In my few mountain climbs I have only been able to reach the summit half of the time, but does it matter so much? Isn’t trying more important than succeeding at all cost? Isn’t the journey just as rewarding as the final push?

I know Xavier, Patrick, Lars feel very similar. And to conclude, this is the paroxysm of climbing for me: friendship, unlimited trust, respect of others. Over the past few years of climbing, I have entrusted Xavier, Patrick, Lars, Glenn with my life and so have they. It is a profound communion with life that I have experienced through mountaineering. I see this as a privilege, an opportunity to set priorities right in life.