“Of all the activities in which men seek wholesome enjoyment, none may be said to be healthier for the strength of body and soul than a mountain ascent. For one’s strength is renewed and increased through hard labor and the struggle to reach the pure and more rarified regions of the air, it also happens that the soul by wrestling with every type of difficulty becomes more persistent in its handling of the burdens and duties of life and the mind, through the contemplation of the immense and beautiful view from the summits more easily rises toward God, Lord of Nature.”
Ambrogio Damiano Achille Ratti (Pope Pius XI)