8,200m Up K2, He Walked Away Alone: Peter Hillary on Survival, Fear & Sir Edmund’s Advice

[inhales] Y- thank you so much for sharing that story with me.

I can app- I can appreciate...

You know, uh, you never know how you would deal with something until you're there, right? I, I imagine from the comfort of my chair that if it were me and I'd been through an experience like that, I might be like, "Oh, well, maybe alpinism not for me." Um, and I can certainly appreciate, uh, backing off from some of those more objectively dangerous routes.

Um, and I, I am curious about that b- because of course you've had other experiences on Everest, on K2, of, uh, y- kind of horrific outcomes to, to some of the things.

And I say horrific, but the thing I wanna test with you, I, I do wanna hear about the, the K2 experience, but my aim here is not to be kind of drilling for, you know, disaster porn.

Um, the, the thing that I'm curious about...

You know, in my view, every life can be summed up as we're born, we do a few things, we die.

And everything in between is kind of gradients of comfort or discomfort.

And I think our relationship with death is one of the key unlocks to being willing to live a full life.

And that's what I'm hearing from you, and I- but I'm not hearing you say it so much, so I don't wanna put words in your mouth.

What I'm hearing from you is a, is a, an idea of, like, I'm...

L- maybe I'm making it up.

Maybe this is not how you f- how you think, so that...

I wa- I wanna test it with you, right? This thing of like, look, you know, w- we're born, we die, and in between I want to go out and live a full life and if...

A- and, and so I'm gonna go on these adventures, and you've been on adventures where people have died, not just Ama Dablam, but on Everest, on K2.

And you are still going, "That, none of that diminishes the desire to want to make the most of the life that I have." Have I made all that up, or am I kind of getting at something?

Yeah, look, I think the thing is, is, is that, um, you know, terrible things can happen in life.

Uh, I've, um, you know, a, a, a member of, of the family recently died from, uh, a, uh, a brain tumor, you know, a bit young.

And, uh, I mean, it's, it's been a very sad event.

And, I mean, I take your point about, you know, we're born, we have life, that we can do a few things and share some time with people and a few good laughs, a- and then we go.

I mean, that's, that's just, that is the trajectory that, that we all have.

And I think the key is what you fill it in with.

We are all going to go.

In the case of the person I'm referring to, well, he had a brain tumor, took him early.

Um, you know, the key is that we really do some good things, and they, it doesn't have to be climbing mountains.