‘It has happened forever, and nothing can make it good.‘ Mallory, after seven men were killed attempting Everest.

Perhaps that’s it. We have to accept the bad too, even the power of the bad, and try to get it right. Not live in it, dwell in it, or try to right what you just can’t, but accept the scar and be bigger and far braver. Fear does such harm, though it’s necessary sometimes too. A commentator said mountaineers have an element of selfishness, deep down, perhaps madness too, misunderstanding the eternal drive, but Graham Greene said writers need a quality of ice too. Mountains to climb! Of course, Mallory ‘lost’.

‘One must conquer, achieve, get to the top, to know there is nothing that mustn’t be dared.’ Mallory.

‘Have we vanquished an enemy? None but ourselves.” Mallory.