117 Inspirational Climbing Quotes And Captions

These climbing quotes and captions place you in the great outdoors with a challenge ahead.

What could be better? You’ll be inspired and motivated to make your next climbing adventure.

10 Best Climbing Quotes

1.) Mountains are not stadiums where I satisfy my ambition to achieve; they are the cathedrals where I practice my religion.
Anatoli Boukreev

2.) You are not in the mountains. The mountains are in you.
John Muir

3.) Climbing is not a battle with the elements, nor against the law of gravity. It’s a battle against oneself.
Walter Bonatti

4.) A man does not climb a mountain without bringing some of it away with him and leaving something of himself upon it.
Sir Martin Conway

5.) He who climbs upon the highest mountains laughs at all tragedies, real or imaginary.
Friedrich Nietzsche

6.) By climbing mountains, we were not learning how big we were. We were finding out how breakable, how weak, and how full of fear we are.
Reinhold Messner

7.) Somewhere between the bottom of the climb and the summit is the answer to the mystery why we climb.
Greg Child

8.) One does not climb to attain enlightenment; rather, one climbs because they are enlightened.
Zen Master Futomaki

9.) There’s no glory in climbing a mountain if all you want to do is to get to the top. It’s experiencing the climb itself – in all its moments of revelation, heartbreak, and fatigue – that has to be the goal.
Karyn Kusama

10.) Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far they can go.
T.S. Eliot

Good Climbing Quotes

Climbing is an artistic, creative thing; it’s about being spontaneous, traveling, seeing the world, hanging out. It’s a balance of setting goals while enjoying the process, being ambitious without being too competitive.
Chris Sharma

When you go to the mountains, you see them, and you admire them. In a sense, they give you a challenge, and you try to express that challenge by climbing them.
Edmund Hillary

Climbing here saved my life from the confines of the materialistic illusion that we’re taught as children in school. The way I see it, there are two worlds: there’s the world where nothing is sacred except money and the other world where everything is sacred.
Ron Kauk

Jumping from boulder to boulder and never falling with a heavy pack is easier than it sounds; you just can’t fall when you get into the rhythm of the dance.
Jack Kerouac

The rope connecting two men on a mountain is more than nylon protection; it is an organic thing that transmits subtle messages of intent and disposition from man to man; it is an extension of the tactile senses, a psychological bond, a wire along which currents of communication flow.
Trevanian

Climbing is one of the few sports in which the arena. The cliffs, the mountains, and their specific routes acquire a notoriety that out populates, outshines, and outlives the actual athletes.
Jonathan Waterman

I find that rock climbing is the finest, most healthiest sport in the whole world. It is much healthier than most. Look at baseball, where 10,000 sit on their ass to watch a handful of players.
John Salathe

There are two kinds of climbers, those who climb because their heart sings when they’re in the mountains, and all the rest.
Alex Lowe

Short Climbing Quotes

Anytime you finish a climb, there’s always the next thing you can try.
Alex Honnold

You have to climb the hill to reach the summit. Thinking won’t get you there.
Marty Rubin

We are apes – we should be climbing.
Alex Honnold

It doesn’t have to be fun to be fun.
Barry Blanchard

The best climber in the world is the one having the most fun!
Alex Lowe

Climbing is not a spectator sport.
Mark Wellman

Fain would I climb, yet fear I to fall.
Walter Raleigh

To be a climber, one has to accept that gratification is rarely immediate.
Bernadette McDonald

Climbing is as close as we can come to flying.
Margaret Young

I go to seek a great perhaps.
John Green

Mountain Climbing Quotations

I may climb perhaps to no great heights, but I will climb alone.
Cyrano de Bergerac

We can climb mountains with self-love.
Samira Wiley

When preparing to climb a mountain – pack a light heart.
Dan May

Getting to the top is optional. Getting down is mandatory.
Ed Viesturs

Climbing is hard to give up. It’s just as hard to give up as cigarettes.
Layton Kor

Climbing is, above all, a matter of integrity.
Gaston Rebuffat

When you reach the top, that’s when the climb begins.
Michael Caine

Better we raise our skill than lower the climb.
Royal Robbins

Climbing is my art; I get so much joy and gratification from it.
Jimmy Chin

Mountains have a way of dealing with overconfidence.
Hermann Buhl

Mountains are not fair or unfair. They are just dangerous.
Reinhold Messner

In order to climb up the mountain, I must first climb out of my fear of climbing.
Craig D. Lounsbrough

If thy heart fails thee, climb not at all.
Elizabeth I

Climbing Meme

Motivational Climbing Sayings

Never measure the height of a mountain until you have reached the top. Then you will see how low it was.
Dag Hammarskjold

Climbing is all about freedom, the freedom to go beyond all the rules and take a chance, to experience something new, to gain insight into human nature.
Reinhold Messner

Highest of heights, I climb this mountain and feel one with the rock and grit and solitude echoing back at me.
Bradley Chicho

The most dangerous thing you can do in life is play it safe.
Casey Neistat

Climbing to the top demands strength, whether it is to the top of Mount Everest or to the top of your career.
A. P. J. Abdul Kalam

What advantages do we hope to gain from climbing mountains? Naturally, there is the pleasure we get from the climbing process itself and from our victories, but as well as the delights of exercise in a mountain environment, there is also the process, coming every time as a surprise, of self-discovery deepening a little further with every climb.
Gaston Rebuffat

In rock climbing, people get strong enough, and then they pick goals they can do with their strengths at that moment.
Tommy Caldwell

Climb the mountain not to plant your flag but to embrace the challenge, enjoy the air and behold the view. Climb it so you can see the world, not so the world can see you.
David McCullough Jr.

As a professional climber, that’s the question you always get: Why, why, why? It’s an ineffable thing; you can’t describe it.
Jimmy Chin

Keep close to Nature’s heart and break clear away, once in a while, and climb a mountain or spend a week in the woods. Wash your spirit clean.
John Muir

The View from Mount Everest’s summit

Inspirational Climbing Quotations

Stand tall on the summit after a tedious climb. Take in the remarkable scenery and the exhilaration of accomplishment. But don’t pause for long; there are greater mountains to climb while you still possess the drive and capacity to do so.
Richelle E. Goodrich

Every mountain top is within reach if you just keep climbing.
Barry Finlay

The summit is what drives us, but the climb itself is what matters.
Conrad Anker

Everyone wants to live on the top of the mountain, but all the happiness and growth occurs while you’re climbing it.
Andy Rooney

The best view comes after the hardest climb.
Unknown

The climb might be tough and challenging, but the view is worth it. There is a purpose for that pain; you just can’t always see it right away.
Victoria Arlen

Obstacles don’t have to stop you. If you run into a wall, don’t turn around and give up. Figure out how to climb it, go through it, or work around it.
Michael Jordan

There are a dozen reasons for climbing, some bad, and I’ve used most of them myself. The worst are fame and money. Commonly people cite exploration or discovery, but that’s rarely relevant in today’s world. The only good reason to climb is to improve yourself.
Yvon Chouinard

The harder you fall, the heavier your heart; the heavier your heart, the stronger you climb; the stronger you climb, the higher your pedestal.
Criss Jami

Without a rope, there is no fear because to fall is unthinkable.
Catherine Destivelle

Never did I explore life as intensively in its beautiness as while hanging on two fingertips freely over the deep hollow.
Wolfgang Güllich

Cool Climbing Sayings

In climbing, you are always faced with new problems in which you must perform using intuitive movements, and then later analyze them to figure out why they work, and then learn from them.
Wolfgang Gullich

You never climb the same mountain twice, not even in memory. Memory rebuilds the mountain, changes the weather, retells the jokes, and remakes all the moves.
Lito Tejada-Flores

The tops of mountains are among the unfinished parts of the globe, whether it is a slight insult to the gods to climb and pry into their secrets and try their effect on our humanity. Only daring and insolent men, perchance, go there.
Henry David Thoreau

The length of the fall is dictated by how far we had climbed. The outcome of the fall is dictated by whether we’re holding on to that which we’re climbing or we’re letting God hold onto us.
Craig D. Lounsbrough

Climbing is unadulterated hard labor. The only real pleasure is the satisfaction of going where no man has been before and where few can follow.
Annie Smith Peck

Motivating Climbing Quotes

Climbing is often a group activity, and it’s always inspiring to see how other people, who share your passions, do things.
Fred Nicole

Nobody climbs mountains for scientific reasons. Science is used to raise money for the expeditions, but you really climb for the hell of it.
Edmund Hillary

In some ways, climbing in the clouds is comforting. You can no longer see how high off the ground you are.
Tommy Caldwell

It’s always further than it looks. It’s always taller than it looks. And it’s always harder than it looks.
Reinhold Messner

For a climber, saying that you are stopping by Everest is like saying that you are stopping by to see God.
Roland Smith

The mountains are calling, and I must go.
John Muir

Famous Climbing Quotes

After climbing a great hill, one only finds that there are many more hills to climb.
Nelson Mandela

In the mountains, there are only two grades: You can either do it, or you can’t.
Rusty Baille

Climb if you will, but remember that courage and strength are naught without prudence and that a momentary negligence may destroy the happiness of a lifetime. Do nothing in haste; look well to each step, and from the beginning, think what may be the end.
Edward Whymper

The harder you fall, the heavier your heart; the heavier your heart, the stronger you climb; the stronger you climb, the higher your pedestal.
Criss Jami

We struggle so that in this process of climbing, we can learn so that we can limit our impatience and grow stronger than we ever imagined to be.
Chirag Tulsiani

I thought climbing the Devil’s Thumb would fix all that was wrong with my life. In the end, of course, it changed almost nothing. But I came to appreciate that mountains make poor receptacles for dreams.
Jon Krakauer

There are a dozen reasons for climbing, some bad, and I’ve used most of them myself. The worst are fame and money. Commonly people cite exploration or discovery, but that’s rarely relevant in today’s world. The only good reason to climb is to improve yourself.
Yvon Chouinard

Notable Quotes for Climbers

Nobody climbs mountains for scientific reasons. Science is used to raise money for the expeditions, but you really climb for the hell of it.
Edmund Hillary

It isn’t the mountains ahead to climb that wear you out; it’s the pebble in your shoe.
Muhammad Ali 

It’s completely unstylish to get stuffed in the mountains – I want to die with my feet up in front of the fire drinking a glass of red wine, aged about 95.
Kenton Cool

As I hammered in the last bolt and staggered over the rim, it was not at all clear to me who was the conqueror and who was the conquered. I do recall that El Cap seemed to be in much better condition than I was.
Warren Harding

I’ve climbed with some of the best climbers in the world; more importantly, to me, they are some of the best people in the world. That’s another reason why I climb.
Jim Wickwire

There is no such thing as bad weather, only inappropriate clothing.
Sir Ranulph Fiennes.

Climb the mountain not to plant your flag but to embrace the challenge, enjoy the air and behold the view. Climb it so you can see the world, not so the world can see you.
David McCullough Jr.

Leaders don’t climb hills of success with shoes of pride. They are slippery enough to bring a person down to the valley.
Israelmore Ayivor

In the end, you won’t remember the time you spent working in the office or mowing your lawn. Climb that $%#damn mountain.
Jack Kerouac

Awesome Climbing Quotes

If you want to train for big mountain endeavors, spend time in big mountains.
Jimmy Chin

When preparing to climb a mountain – pack a light heart.
Dan May

You cannot stay on the summit forever; you have to come down again. So why bother in the first place? Just this: What is above knows what is below, but what is below does not know what is above. One climbs, one sees. One descends, one sees no longer, but one has seen.
Rene Daumal

Everyone wants to live on top of the mountain, but all the happiness and growth occur while you’re climbing it.
Andy Rooney

Those who travel to mountaintops are half in love with themselves and half in love with oblivion.
Robert Macfarlane

The summit is what drives us, but the climb itself is what matters.
Conrad Anker

Accidents on big mountains happen when people’s ambitions cloud their good judgment. Good climbing is about climbing with heart and with instinct, not ambition and pride.
Bear Grylls

Climbing Quotes FAQs

Here are some frequently asked questions about climbing quotes.

Climbing Captions

• All good things are wild and free.
• Stop staring at mountains. Climb them instead, yes, it’s a harder process, but it will lead you to a better view.
• Climb the mountains and get their good tidings.
• Hike more. Worry less.
• Restless spirit.
• Chalk up and climb.
• Dear Mountains, Until we meet again.
• Coffee, Mountains, Adventure.
• I haven’t peaked yet.
• Born 2 Boulder.
• I like to get high.
• You call it rock climbing; I call it Ninja Training.
• Rock Hugger, but Alive!
• On a date with the mountains.

Instagram Caption Ideas for Climbers

• Do you even climb, Bro?
• Life’s a climb, but the view is great.
• Chalk dirty to me.
• Rock climbing is therapy.
• Go climb a rock.
• OCD: Obsessive Climbing Disorder.
• I’d climb that.
• I’m either climbing or thinking about it.
• Chalked, Locked, and Ready to Rock.
• Climbing: Only for the Brave.
• Don’t be afraid to fail. Be afraid not to try.
• Born to climb, forced to work.
• Gravity is a myth.
• Will belay for beer.
• It’s not the mountain we conquer but ourselves.
• You won’t fall if you don’t climb, but there’s no joy in living your whole life on the ground.

By Jon Edwards

Jon writes about sports and adventure.

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