Warren G. Harding Climbing Quotations

I couldn't catch a ball or any of that stuff. I could do only what required brute stupidity.

Screwing is more enjoyable than drilling bolt holes !.

I do recall that El Cap seemed to be in much better condition than I was,

He liked to play chess and do intelligent things, and I was a serious drinker and nonthinker.

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.

My once-keen analytical mind has become so dulled by endless hours of baking in the hot sun, thrashing about in tight chimneys, pulling at impossibly heavy loads, freezing my ass off.... so that now my mental state is comparable to that of a Peruvian Indian, well stoked on coca leaves...

I was spent up. I sure grabbed that girl of mine.

I hate climbers like Royal Robbins who are so superior. He doesn’t mean to be, he just is. He’s methodic, scientific, capable, and so competent it makes me envious. I was climbing with some hotshot Brit in Yosemite once, and he said, ‘My God, Harding, you can’t do anything!’ I said, ‘I know, but I can do it forever.’

Actually, we're just glorified flagpole sitters.

I continued with whatever 'qualified climbers' I could con into this rather unpromising venture.