"What we see often has more to do with what we have seen in the past or what we hope or expect to see than it does with what is staring us in the face." — Jill Fredston Snowstruck: In the Grip of Avalanches
"To treat your facts with imagination is one thing, to imagine your facts is another." — John Burroughs
"In the inner workings of his brain, he had tagged it a happy, rewarding place. (Ali: the opposite is also true)" — Jill Fredston Snowstruck: In the Grip of Avalanches
"The longer the time lag between taking a risk and feeling its consequences, the more likely we are to ignore the risk." — Jill Fredston Snowstruck: In the Grip of Avalanches
"Most avalanche accidents happen when the terrain is a red light, the snowpack is a red light, and the skies have cleared, with sparkling green-light weather that entices people into the mountains." — Jill Fredston Snowstruck: In the Grip of Avalanches
"Familiarity and accessibility, however, inflate the problem by making us complacent. The mountains don’t behave any differently just because they are close to town." — Jill Fredston Snowstruck: In the Grip of Avalanches
"But we’re destined to lose any waiting game with nature, which has infinitely more time than we do. Thirty years is nothing but a nap in the life of an avalanche path." — Jill Fredston Snowstruck: In the Grip of Avalanches
"Avalanches are like fish: they tend to run in schools." — Jill Fredston Snowstruck: In the Grip of Avalanches
"Like Silly Putty, snow can flow and bend into ribbons and folds, and it can also bounce or spring. But when yanked rather than gently stretched, Silly Putty will break. If snow is stressed too much or too rapidly, it also becomes brittle and ruptures into pieces." — Jill Fredston Snowstruck: In the Grip of Avalanches
"The body doesn’t know miles, it knows stress. If an athlete does the same types of miles as a gold medalist, there’s a good chance the stress could turn their body and spirit into a pile of smoldering rubble." — David Roche via Brendan Leonard Outside Online, "17 Training Myths, Addressed by a Running Coach"
"Isn't it mysterious how so many wonderful things in life come to us seemingly without a plan? We start traveling down one street and find ourselves interested in something we never expected on a side street, and as we explore it, the side street becomes the main road for us." — Fred Rogers Life's Journeys According to Mister Rogers
"Wilderness is not a luxury but a necessity of the human spirit, and as vital to our lives as water and good bread. A civilization which destroys what little remains of the wild, the spare, the original, is cutting itself off from its origins and betraying the principle of civilization itself." — Edward Abbey Desert Solitaire: A Season in the Wilderness
"A world without open country would be universal jail." — Edward Abbey
"'There is no such thing as sustainability. The best we can do is cause the least amount of harm.' Instead of 'sustainable,' he prefers the term 'responsible,' which, he argues, starts with companies treating nature not as a resource to be exploited but as a unique, life-giving entity on which we all—not least business—depend." — Yvon Chouinard The Guardian, "Patagonia founder Yvon Chouinard: Denying Climate Change is Evil"
"A true conservationist is a man who knows that the world is not given by his fathers but borrowed from his children." — John James Audubon
"This is the most beautiful place on Earth. There are many such places. Every man, every woman, carries in heart and mind the image of the ideal place, the right place, the one true home, known or unknown, actual or visionary." — Edward Abbey Desert Solitaire: A Season in the Wilderness
"There are still plenty of wild places where one can lose oneself as opposed to getting lost, and just be in a place that you feel perfect in at that moment." — John Hessler
"We all have a place, a city park, a mountain trail, a desert flower, a perfect beach break. Some place that brings us outside. Outside our work, outside our lives, outside ourselves. We might share them with others, but they feel like they are just for us. Most often, they are not. These places, as natural and beautiful and untouched as they seem, are larger than us. To exist, these places require effort. So understand the places you love. Learn who works to protect them, and who makes decisions on their behalf. Give your efforts to these places, and truly get outside." — Amy Morrison Stay Wild Magazine, Spring 2015, insert
"The view changed incrementally every few dozen steps, and after 50 iPhone photos, you kind of feel like you’ve captured it, but of course you haven’t. When you’re walking somewhere like that, you know it’s special, but you don’t know that years later you’ll feel like maybe you rushed it. Maybe you will make it back there again, maybe you won’t, and it for sure would be different, and even if it’s not different you’ll be a little different, so the whole thing won’t be the same anyway. But damn, what a view." — Brendan Leonard Semi-Rad, "Walking the Knife Edge of Switzerland’s Hardergrat"
"Every living thing has the same wish to flourish again and again. Beyond that, our differences are quibbles. I do not want to be a lonely species set adrift from all the rest." — Craig Childs The Animal Dialogues: Uncommon Encounters in the Wild
