We've been climbing this mountain. We reached the top in 2005 and now we're on a very high plateau.

Stock prices have reached what looks like a permanently high plateau.

Home sales are coming down from the mountain peak, but they will level out at a high plateau -- a plateau that is higher than previous peaks in the housing cycle. This transition to a more normal and balanced market is a good thing.

Temperatures have been climbing in recent years at the Qinghai-Tibet plateau.

Temperatures have been climbing in recent years on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau.

No, not conquer, that is too foolish a world. Any man who scales a mountain is still but a man, a transient speck compared to the immensity and permanence of a mountain .