text:  High-end climbing at that level is oftentimes deeply tied to extreme levels of stress. And when you couple that with the demand to document it, while it can be very freeing and beautiful and you have these very, very big, meaningful experiences, at the same time, it can be a very long, sort of tedious meditation on your own mortality. So when you go on these big expeditions, say trying to climb a new route on Everest without oxygen, I'm also constantly thinking about death and dying.