Andrew Greig wrote one of my favourite books, 'Summit Fever' ... an armchair climber's initiation to Glencoe, mortal terror and 'The Himalayan Matterhorn'.
After two months of life in a high altitude camp Andrew describes the walk out from the mountains
Walking out is an extended decompression, an easing back into normal life. Part of the addiction of climbing is that it makes the ordinary world marvellous and desirable again. I associated everything I wanted now with items of furniture: bed, chair, table, settee. The casually intimate embrace of a familiar lover; the company of friends, shared food and drink, laughter and conversation, the cats sprawled out, books,the guitar ... Back to the warm, human world - not for safety and shelter, not running away from something, but a return to the complex, human life that's there.
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