Nietzsche and Modern Mountaineering - Wilfrid Noyce

Then, when it was about midnight, Zarathustra went his way over the ridge of the isle, that he might arrive early in the morning at the other coast; because there he meant to embark. For there was a good roadstead there, in which foreign ships also liked to anchor: those ships took many people with them, who wished to cross over from the Happy Isles. So when Zarathustra thus ascended the mountain, he thought on the way of his many solitary wanderings from youth onwards, and how many mountains and ridges and summits he had already climbed.

I am a wanderer and mountain-climber, said he to his heart, I love not the plains, and it seemeth I cannot long sit still.

And whatever may still overtake me as fate and experience — a wandering will be therein, and a mountain-climbing: in the end one experienceth only oneself.

The time is now past when accidents could befall me; and what COULD now fall to my lot which would not already be mine own!

It returneth only, it cometh home to me at last — mine own Self, and such of it as hath been long abroad, and scattered among things and accidents.

And one thing more do I know: I stand now before my last summit, and before that which hath been longest reserved for me. Ah, my hardest path must I ascend! Ah, I have begun my lonesomest wandering!

He, however, who is of my nature doth not avoid such an hour: the hour that saith unto him: Now only dost thou go the way to thy greatness! Summit and abyss — these are now comprised together!

Thou goest the way to thy greatness: now hath it become thy last refuge, what was hitherto thy last danger!

Thou goest the way to thy greatness: it must now be thy best courage that there is no longer any path behind thee!

Thou goest the way to thy greatness: here shall no one steal after thee! Thy foot itself hath effaced the path behind thee, and over it standeth written: Impossibility.

And if all ladders henceforth fail thee, then must thou learn to mount upon thine own head: how couldst thou mount upward otherwise?

Upon thine own head, and beyond thine own heart! Now must the gentlest in thee become the hardest.

He who hath always much-indulged himself, sickeneth at last by his much– indulgence. Praises on what maketh hardy! I do not praise the land where butter and honey — flow!

To learn TO LOOK AWAY FROM oneself, is necessary in order to see MANY THINGS:— this hardiness is needed by every mountain-climber.

He, however, who is obtrusive with his eyes as a discerner, how can he ever see more of anything than its foreground!

"In the house of pain, we were chained together searching for our truth, beyond good and evil". This quote from Nietzsche inspired Andy Parkin and Mark Twight, the openers of this mixed climbing route, that became a reference. Listed extremely difficult, North oriented, this route was appealing for François Damilano and François Marsigny, the repeaters of the route.
Last winter (2013-14), it was time for the up-and-coming generation, represented by Marion Poitevin and Sébastien Ratel to meet the challenge. Three duos, three experiences, three encounters… echoing the Trilogy alpine series.

Why Another brings with him nude nazis to a Nietzsche thread is beyond my imagination...

Todd Eastman: Noyce needed an editor...

One is the idea of automatic progress. For a monotheist, there is a telos, an ultimate purpose in human history, even if it lies beyond time. Without this faith in God, however, history is going nowhere. Yet most recent forms of atheism have substituted faith in humanity for faith in God and assumed that with the aid of science life will get better. So for Gray most of these forms of atheism are a form of repressed religion. There is no such entity as humanity, only the endless variety of human beings with their different trajectories and what we term civilization is as likely to collapse as be improved on; there is certainly no prospect of a utopian political order, an idea that again owes everything to religion

Furthermore, he argues that this belief in progress, commonly imagined to be secular and liberal, is in fact derived from an erroneous Christian notion of humans as morally autonomous beings categorically different from other animals. This belief, and the corresponding idea that history makes sense, or is progressing towards something, is in Gray's view merely a Christian prejudice

None of these fantastical creatures has been seen by human eyes