"The first question which you will ask and which I must try to answer is this; What is the use of climbing Mount Everest? and my answer must at once be, it is no use. There is not the slightest prospect of any gain whatsoever"
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Mallory’s genius here is the blunt refusal to dress desire up as utility. Asked for a justification that can be audited like a budget line, he answers with a deadpan: none. “No use.” “Not the slightest prospect of any gain whatsoever.” The phrasing is almost bureaucratic in its certainty, which is exactly what makes it sting. He borrows the language of practical men - prospects, gain, use - only to zero it out. That’s the trick: he meets the modern demand for purpose and calmly denies it satisfaction.
The context matters. In the early 20th century, Everest wasn’t just a mountain; it was an imperial stage, a technological dare, a national story waiting for an ending. Mallory’s “no use” reads as a quiet rebellion against that apparatus. He’s stripping the climb of propaganda and commerce before anyone else can claim it. If there’s no “gain,” then the act can’t be reduced to conquest, careerism, or patriotic accounting. It becomes something more unsettling: a chosen risk undertaken for its own strange gravity.
The subtext isn’t nihilism; it’s integrity. He’s defending a category of human action that doesn’t translate into profit, lesson, or legacy on demand. The real target is the question itself - the insistence that everything must justify its existence in the language of return on investment. Mallory’s answer makes room for the irrational, the aesthetic, the spiritual thirst for the “because.” In a world increasingly ruled by measurable outcomes, he’s arguing for the immeasurable and accepting the price.
The context matters. In the early 20th century, Everest wasn’t just a mountain; it was an imperial stage, a technological dare, a national story waiting for an ending. Mallory’s “no use” reads as a quiet rebellion against that apparatus. He’s stripping the climb of propaganda and commerce before anyone else can claim it. If there’s no “gain,” then the act can’t be reduced to conquest, careerism, or patriotic accounting. It becomes something more unsettling: a chosen risk undertaken for its own strange gravity.
The subtext isn’t nihilism; it’s integrity. He’s defending a category of human action that doesn’t translate into profit, lesson, or legacy on demand. The real target is the question itself - the insistence that everything must justify its existence in the language of return on investment. Mallory’s answer makes room for the irrational, the aesthetic, the spiritual thirst for the “because.” In a world increasingly ruled by measurable outcomes, he’s arguing for the immeasurable and accepting the price.
Quote Details
| Topic | Mountain |
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