"The funny thing about climbing
Is that everyone watching from below
Just sees someone going up
They don't see the part where you've been gripping the same rock for three hours
Too scared to move
Too tired to go back down
Just hanging there
Smiling if anyone looks up"

[Verse 1]
I've been climbing since before I can remember
Everyone said look how high you've gone
And I kept going because that's what you do
When going up is all you've ever known
But somewhere between the ground and here
My hands stopped feeling like my own
And the view that was supposed to mean something
Just looks like a long way down to home

[Chorus]
And if you see me at the top
You'd think I had it figured out
You'd see the height and not the shaking
You'd see the summit not the doubt
There was no cliff that you could point to
No ledge that had my name
And yet I've been falling the whole way up
And arriving just the same

[Verse 2]
The altitude is strange up here
Everything is thin and cold
I keep reaching for the next grip
Like I was always told
Good things are happening around me
I can see them, they're right there
But my fingers are too numb to hold them
And I'm too high up to care

[Bridge]
Did I earn any of this
If I can't feel my hands?
Does the height mean anything
If I don't know where I stand?
The thoughts come in like vertigo
I know exactly what they say
I've heard them at every altitude
They follow me all the way

[Final Verse]
So I keep climbing
Because stopping looks like falling
Keep moving, keep going
Keep answering when they're calling
But the mountain is patient
And the mountain doesn't care
And it knows the difference
Between someone climbing
And someone frozen there