A man climbs the mountains because he needs to climb, because that is the way he is made, Rock and ice and snow and wind and the great blue canopy of the sky are not all that he finds upon the mountain-tops.

He discovers things about his own body and mind that he had almost forgotten in the day-to-day, year-to-year routine of living. He learns what his legs are for, what his lungs are for, what the wise men of old meant by refreshment of the spirit.