Enjoying the Pain On the Roof of the World - Conrad Anker

High altitude mountain climbers are a peculiar breed of human, and Conrad Anker definitely fits the description. His love of spending time in freezing temperatures at thinly oxygenated altitudes leaves Anker concluding that “deep down, there’s some part of me that has some satisfaction in suffering and hardship and maybe I’m not quite balanced,” but he tells Boyd that he would much rather spend 20 days on Everest than visit his local shopping mall in the days before Christmas. The famed mountaineer also explains how he doesn’t plan to stop climbing as he gets older, but his achievements may become less extreme: “If I can climb 5 or 6 (thousand meter peaks) into my 80’s and 90’s, I’ll be totally psyched.”