Summit Quotes

“There is no royal road to science, and only those who do not dread the fatiguing climb of its steep paths have a chance of gaining its luminous summits.”
― Karl Marx, Capital: A Critique of Political Economy Volume 1

“I am led to believe that any summit is achieved simply through a series of steps. However, what I’ve failed to recognize is that those steps would be irrelevant if I hadn’t first gotten up every time I had been knocked down.”
― Craig D. Lounsbrough

“A thousand people may have climbed to a very difficult summit, but none of them can achieve the honor of the first person to reach it!”
― Mehmet Murat ildan

“The views are mesmeric, and everywhere is downhill from where I am now. But I am not happy at all. I know I don’t belong here.”
― Bhuwan Thapaliya, Our Nepal, Our Pride

“The government of Hawaii has been arresting the native Hawaiians that are objecting to the development of Mauna Kea. The Hawaiians regard it as the most sacred place in Hawaii. They view the summit of Mauna Kea as their place of worship and they regard the Mauna Kea Observatories as desecration. Could you imagine several of the world’s largest telescopes being built at the Vatican in the middle of St. Peter’s Square? It is the same thing!”
― Steven Magee, Summit Brain

“You need attitude to research altitude!”
― Steven Magee

“I took a look through the recent Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) Twitter feed and could find no information on the full range of sicknesses, diseases and deaths known to occur in Mauna Kea and La Palma summit workers.”
― Steven Magee

“Most sicknesses can be reverse engineered back to their root cause.”
― Steven Magee

“Professional astronomy summit staff are known to die in accidents.”
― Steven Magee

“The accident rate in professional astronomy summit workers seems unusually high.”
― Steven Magee

“The illness, disease and death rates in professional astronomy summit workers seems higher than normal.”
― Steven Magee

“The summit of Mauna Kea in Hawaii is in operation as an oxygen bar with many workers using it.”
― Steven Magee

“I have stayed at the summit cabin of the Mauna Loa volcano.”
― Steven Magee

“I was shocked at how large the summit caldera was of the Mauna Loa volcano!”
― Steven Magee

“The summit of the Mauna Loa volcano silently erupted in the middle of the night in 2022.”
― Steven Magee

“I was surprised at how deep the summit caldera was of the Mauna Loa volcano!”
― Steven Magee

“Summit Lag occurs when a summit worker is kept in a permanent state of mal-acclimatization.”
― Steven Magee, Toxic Altitude

“Altitude Sickness in humans has different classifications.”
― Steven Magee, Toxic Altitude

“Systemic inflammation is a component of altitude sickness.”
― Steven Magee, Toxic Altitude

“You have the legal right to a safe workplace.”
― Steven Magee, Toxic Altitude

“I was surprised at how simple the treatment for Altitude Hypersensitivity was.”
― Steven Magee, Toxic Altitude

“The skull pains during characterizing Altitude Hypersensitivity had me mystified as to what they were!”
― Steven Magee, Toxic Altitude

“Altitude sickness is a poorly defined sickness.”
― Steven Magee, Toxic Altitude

“I am aware of at least three people that changed gender during their time in high altitude astronomy.”
― Steven Magee

“My ex now lives with a woman!”
― Steven Magee

“My ex changed gender while working up high in the sky!”
― Steven Magee

“I saw my ex become lesbian, she was very stressed about it! She was previously straight. She was a Mauna Kea night shift worker regularly exposed to the very high altitude summit.”
― Steven Magee

“I remember being at the summit of Mauna Kea in Hawaii and watching the 9-11 attacks on TV. It happened in the middle of the night when everyone was asleep and I only found out about it when I arrived at work. By that time the two towers had collapsed hours earlier.”
― Steven Magee

“Some people think that with nowhere higher to climb, reaching the top of Everest is the end. But it is just the mid-point. The real journey begins in the long, dangerous descent that lies ahead.”
― Bhuwan Thapaliya, Our Nepal, Our Pride

“Only the summit can illuminate its own insignificance.”
― Cory Richards, The Color of Everything: A Journey to Quiet the Chaos Within