The People You Meet Along The Way: Celebrating the Women of the World - International Womens Day 2019

Travel isn’t simply about movement from one place to the next. It’s deeper and broader. In travel, there are lessons to be learned from those who forge their lives in the hustle and bustle of the city, in dusty villages, along rolling hillsides and in the shadows of soaring mountain peaks. 

Today is International Women’s Day, a day to celebrate the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women - while also making a call to action for accelerating gender balance. In celebrating I reflect on gender balance in the context of my travels and the women and men who have made deep impressions on me. Impressions which challenge the stereotypes. Impressions of women at the front. Impressions of women leading, providing and working as equals alongside their male counterparts. Impressions of women, driving change and creating opportunities for women today and for future generations.

Strength and resilience in the Himalayas…

I remember my first trip to the Himalayas over two decades ago. I was welcomed with warm smiles and hot tea into Guest Houses across Nepal, Tibet and Bhutan by kind, strong, and confident women – ‘didis’, mothers, sisters, aunties, grandmothers. Not only were these women business savvy proprietresses, they were the heads of the family - running the household, raising children, managing finances, tending to the gardens and crops. 

Let me introduce the humble Ang Domi Sherpa. She lives a quiet life in the small village of Thame, Nepal. Whilst her husband spends seasons guiding on Everest, Ang Domi raises the family, runs a busy tea-house, and follows her passion for training for the Everest Marathon - she's completed it multiple times including in 2015 when she ran it and raised funds to help rebuild Thame village after it was destroyed in the Nepal earthquake. The 42km race, one of the toughest in the world, starts at Everest Base Camp (5,364m) and ends at Namche Bazaar (3,440m). It was humbling listening to Ang Domi's story - even more so as she sheepishly and somewhat apologetically explained the reason behind one of her ‘slower’ paces - she was pregnant at the time.

Similarly, I reflect on a cup of tea shared with a group of the local women in a small village of Gairung, Nepal following the devastating earthquakes of 2015. Nearly all the homes in the village were destroyed and many men, women and children were injured or lost their lives. I listened as the women quietly told their stories, the depth of their emotions shared through facial expressions, intonations, hand gestures, tears and smiles. Despite not ‘understanding’ the language the lessons and learnings were clear. These women were pillars resilience reflected by the way they pulled together the courage and strength to organise grassroots relief efforts and rebuild their lives, their families and their communities - while their husbands worked on construction projects abroad to generate an income to support the family. 

Business acumen and tenacity in South East Asia…

The women of the markets in countries throughout South East Asia also left an early impression. I think back to the steamy and crowded Chatuchak market in Thailand. The commercial prowess of the women running their busy market stalls laden with stacks of produce, fresh fish and meats would give most business programs a run for their money. I received firsthand lessons in marketing, haggling and client service as I observed the women as they interacted with their eager customers. I watched inspired as they confidently and gracefully beheaded, gutted and wrapped fresh fish with a wink and a smile. 

Culture, celebration and family in Peru…

I think back to an expedition in Peru and the women who celebrated with us upon our return from the dizzying heights of Alpamayo. Local women prepared a celebratory feast and invited us into their homes to experience the richness of the Peruvian culture and cuisine. With great fanfare of music and celebration in their colourful layered skirts, we dined and danced together enjoying a delicious dish of ‘pachamanca’  - potatoes, corn and meat buried and cooked in an underground ‘oven’ of hot stones. Not only was it a celebration of our safe return from the mountains, it was a celebration in and of itself, a source of fertility and life. 

Confidence and capability in the Alps…

A reflection on impressions and inspiration moves next to the women – the guides, the coaches, the mentors, the friends - I’ve shared a rope with in my ‘mountain playground’ of the Chamonix Valley. I’m grateful for their lessons about movement in the mountains and in life more broadly. These women ‘get’ it and they ‘get’ me. The insecurities and vulnerability I feel around harder skills – technical ability, capability, and strength, as well as the softer lessons in purpose, passion and values. I have tremendous gratitude for their listening ears, the firmness of their instruction and gentleness of their advice. I would not be the person I am today – on and off the mountain – without their friendship, support and guidance. 

Discipline, commitment courage and creativity in Alaska… 

There are the women who not only inspire us on our journeys but also physically take us there. A highlight of an expedition to Denali, Alaska was being flown into basecamp by pilot Leighan Falley.  The short film, “Denali’s Raven” provides a glimpse into her life as a pilot, skier, alpinist and mother as she soars above the glaciers and peaks of the Alaska Range with her daughter Skye strapped into the backseat of her de Havilland Beaver. Her story and lesson is one of balance, of discipline, commitment, courage and creativity - a love for the dramatic Alaskan landscape, a need to supplement her career as a mountain guide, and her role as a wife and mother. 

Somewhat awe-struck I stepped into the plane as she shared with me an insight about her experiences in a predominately male dominated industry – “It’s not hard being a female pilot in Alaska, but that’s also the wonderful thing about aviation. The airplane, the mountains, and the weather—they don’t know you’re a woman…” A lesson extending to mountaineering as well.

The people you meet along the way….

There are the women travelers I’ve met along the way. Solo travellers, families, women traveling with their sisters, daughters, aunts, lovers… Some traveling on a holiday, some traveling to raise money for a charity, some simply traveling for the sake of travel. Confident, curious, kind, inspiring women everywhere. These are the women you meet in the coffee shops, in the guest houses, the airports, the visa queues, along the trails, on the summits and on the long journeys home... From these women I learn the importance of listening, sharing and kindness. Everyone has a story and a lesson and there is always a learning.
  

International Women’s Day 2019...

Today as we celebrate International Women’s Day I’m grateful for all those women and men who continue to challenge perceptions and inspire us to look beyond perceived boundaries. I’ve highlighted a few examples from my travels - but this summary is neither comprehensive nor geographically representative. 

I’m also inspired closer to home by the many women and men in my life – the friends, family, colleagues, mentors, coaches and role models - who are examples for me and many others in environments far removed from adventures in the mountains. 

As my friend the inspiring Shalena Poffenberger recently reflected in her travel blog, Longitudianal Shift. “Women are the ropes that hold communities together. They’ve spun the thread, weaved the cloth, and transformed it into something unbreakable. That’s what a woman is. She is the background, the foreground and the connector. We women work together, we work against each other, and we work on behalf of one another. But all day long, we are working for something.” 

We have much to celebrate today but there is still a long way to go to achieve a world where gender balance is the norm – but until then let us continue to work toward this goal and recognise the women and men around the world who move the dial and are examples to us all. 

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The People You Meet Along The Way: Biscuits and Tea in Thame

The magic of Nepal isn’t just about the Himalayas. There’s also magic to be found in the hillsides of the soaring mountain peaks. I was reminded of this today as I started down a rabbit warren of photographs looking for ‘epic climbing pictures’ from my adventures in the mountains for an upcoming presentation. 

The more I looked for ‘epic pictures’ the less I felt connected. And I began to wonder why. Why was it that an exercise that should have fed an appetite for adventure and love for storytelling actually bored me? 

I went for a walk outside to clear my head. I made myself a coffee. I surfed the internet for inspiration. Nothing helped. It all felt flat. Very flat.

I sat back down behind my laptop and found myself flicking through a ‘painful’ reel of expedition photographs. I stumbled upon the 2015 earthquake. I still struggle to look at these images because of the feelings that resurface. Feelings that are incredibly intense and difficult to put into words – anxiety, helplessness, sadness, guilt – but also hope, happiness, humility, strength and resilience. I look back at the person I was in those photographs. Strong, connected and driven by an alignment of purpose and passion. What was so different about that person from 2015 and the person I was striving to be in my ‘epic pictures’ persona which litter my Instagram today?

Then my eyes landed on a photograph that I connected to more strongly than any photo on my ‘epic mountain reel’. The weathered, kind faces of an elderly couple that I visited in the aftermath of the earthquake on a visit into the Khumbu region. My mind went back to the day of the photograph….

The Lessons of Thame... 

Between continued aftershocks and a constant threat of landslides, my journey into the Khumbu had been a daunting one, but one I undertook with a strong sense of mission and purpose. I traveled with friend Dorje Sherpa into the region to conduct an assessment of the damage and to deliver much-needed relief from our “Help Sherpa Help Nepal” fundraising efforts to the people of Thame village, just off the well-worn trail past the Sherpa capital of Namche Bazaar. 

The valley of Thame and its neighboring Thameteng had been devastated by the earthquake including complete destruction of the Thame monastery, one of the oldest in the Khumbu. Any buildings that ‘survived’ the first earthquake were subsequently destroyed in the aftershocks. A total of 423 houses were damaged affecting the population of 1876 people.

On the dusty path into Thame we came across an elderly grey-haired woman standing motionless on the side of the road wearing traditional local dress accessorized by a filthy faded pink North Face jacket. Flowing between her fingers were dirt-encrusted and well-worn Buddhist prayer beads, also known as a mala. She looked blankly down the path, her face deep-set with wrinkles, a stream of tears rolling down her cheeks as she murmured mantras under her breath. I was drawn to her tired, tear filled eyes. 

Dorje approached her quietly whilst I stood back and looked on trying to be respectful of their exchange. They spoke in hushed tones for a few minutes and then Dorje motioned for me to join them as we started down the dirt path in the direction of a large pile of rubble. 

Sadly and alarmingly, the large pile of rubble turned out to be the remains of her home. An old man appeared. He was limping and his tattered clothes were also covered in dirt. He greeted Dorje and I with sad, tired eyes and clearly needed medical attention. My Nepali doesn’t extend much beyond “Namaste’, and I couldn’t understand a word of the conversation however the gist was clear. 

Dorje translated the subtleties of the scene.  The elderly couple’s home had been completely destroyed by the earthquake. The woman had been making lunch over an open fire at the time. In the chaotic aftermath of the quake, all remaining and salvageable possessions that the couple owned had been engulfed and completely destroyed by the fire. Everything they owned had been lost. 

My heart churned. I didn’t know how to react. They were too old and fragile to rebuild their home.  The heavy rains of the monsoon season were fast approaching. As Dorje explained the story I looked at the ground whilst my feet shifted awkwardly in the dust. 

The couple and Dorje exchanged a few more words and we were invited to crawl on our hands and knees in the dirt under a warren of bright blue and orange tarps which served as a temporary shelter. It was damp, cold and smoky. Despite her age and fragility, the woman was surprisingly agile and her eyes seemed to brighten at the prospect of having us as guests in her home. I sat silently on the ground as she and Dorje continued to speak whilst her husband looked quietly on. An emanciated cat roamed in and sat down at my feet, meowed and looking up at me quizzically. I'd never felt so foreign in my life yet so much like I was exactly where I was meant to be. 

Water boiled in a rusty old pot.

The woman poured me a cup of steaming black tea, topping it up with a generous spoonful of sugar. She humbly offered me the scalding tin mug with both hands, a kind, warm and strong smile on her weathered face. I accepted the tea and drank it quietly. She then turned, dug into an old plastic crate and pulled out an unopened pack of biscuits. The pack looked shiny and strange and almost cheerful with its bright yellow packaging juxtapositioned against the somber scene under the tarp. 

Despite my protests she opened the packaging, looked me directly in the eye, reached out her hand and in perfect English offered, “Biscuit?”

I was certain that was one of the very few English words that she knew. I also knew that declining the ration of biscuit would have caused offense. Her eyes lit up with pride as I accepted her offering.

Dorje and the elderly couple continued to speak whilst I sat and drank bottomless cups of tea. They say that being ‘fully present’ allows you to connect with an experience and ‘feel’ it on many levels. I was overwhelmed by the energy in that small enclosed space under the bright orange tarp. It’s a feeling so intense that I can still feel it today, nearly 4 years on and I’ve gone back to that moment time and time again in the years since. I was filled with an incredible sense of purpose. I knew that the lesson of humility and kindness displayed by that couple in selflessly offering me everything they had would be a lesson that would stay with me for life.

Later that morning, the couple joined us as we continued the short walk up to Thame village where we met with the local people for the carefully organized distribution of relief.  As the elderly man marked his thumb to ‘sign’ for the receipt of funds (a total of $66 per person) he looked up at me and smiled. I knew that in a very tiny way I’d made his life a little bit better and maybe even a little bit easier. 

But I know in my heart that the impression that he and so many others I met that day left so much more on me. 

In 2017 I returned to Thame to visit the couple, bringing my own biscuits and see how they were doing. I knocked on the door to a small two story ‘home’ built of stones and old plywood. I saw a face appear from the second floor window and the familiar smile. As the door opened we were greeted warmly and with pride, and invited into the home for tea. we made a small offering of butter and juniper on the family alter in the corner of the room.

Smiles and gestures have the power to communicate so much more than words and actions can transcend language barriers. Seeing that the elderly man was ok and that he and his wife had resiliently rebuilt their lives filled me with a tremendous sense of calm. 

Before I left, I asked for a ‘selfie’. When I shared the end-result he looked at the photo in awe and wonder. His eyes filling with tears.... 

He looked at me, smiled and said, ‘So old!’.

I’ll never forget that day and I look forward to returning to Thame in a few weeks time.

In travel, so much inspiration is found through the stories of the people we meet along the way. A great reminder to breathe, truly live in the moment and take the time to enjoy the journey - because sometimes it is journey that IS the destination.... 

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The People You Meet: "Where are you 'at'?

A friend recently reached out and asked where I was ‘at’. His use of quotation marks meant he wasn’t looking to hear that I was at Starbucks ordering a double-shot latte. The question made me pause, self-check and think - the reaction which met the questions intended purpose. Where was I ‘at’, really?

The question was timely and insightful. I’d slowly fallen into a cycle of chasing opportunities and experiences without much thought. "Fear of missing out" (aka FOMO) driven by an egoistic desire to ‘live life to its fullest because life is short’. Cliché. 

A potentially toxic alchemy of ambiguity stoked by social media, mid-life ‘crisis’, rejection, redirection and an incessant fear of not achieving my ‘so-called potential’. Somewhat ironically, in worrying about ‘not achieving my potential’, I was straying further from my potential - and further from my sense of “purpose” as a result.

What mountain are you climbing?

There are literally thousands of quotes about ‘purpose’ – I know this because I’ve spent more hours than I care to admit reading Instagram "inspirational quote" posts looking for answers that I already have. My favourite comes courtesy of Friedrich Nietzsche:

“He who has a ‘why’ to live for can bear almost any,‘how’”. 

Essentially, be brave enough to live the life you want to live, according to your vision and your purpose instead of the expectations and opinions of others.  A simple quote yet hard to execute in practice… Hence why the, “I’m at Starbucks,” response to the well-intentioned question would’ve been an easier answer.

When I was in my late 20s and 30s I invested a lot of time ‘chasing summits’, both real and proverbial. I cringe when I write that.  Don’t get me wrong – it was a LOT of fun. I saw incredible parts of the world, experienced unique moments, developed deep friendships, and achieved some pretty big goals both in my career and in climbing mountains across the Himalayas, Andes and Alps. During this time I spent my time managing a fine line between a supportive corporate employer and cold hypoxic basecamps. Plus a lot of hard work and grit in between. And it was 100% worth it – all the conscious choices, decisions and investments. 

At the time, mountain summits were my purpose.  And I did well in working incredibly hard to maintain a steady focus in pursuing them, even knocking off a few big ones along the way… 

But did this truly fulfil me and feed a deeper desire to do ‘something more’…?  Well, honestly, no, not really.

I first discovered climbing in 2008 as the result of a break-up. Let’s be brutally honest – I got dumped. I escaped to the Himalayas to ‘heal’ and I joined a small expedition to climb Mera Peak, a 6300m “trekking peak” in the Everest region. I knew very little about mountaineering, had little experience, and was woefully unprepared. 

Three challenging weeks later our team reached the summit and I looked over a panorama of Himalayan giants framed against a cloudless blue sky. It was absolutely breathtaking. I knew that despite everything that I’d gone through to get there (it definitely hadn’t been easy), that there was no place on Earth I’d rather be. The boyfriend was forgotten and a new ‘passion’ for seeing the world from a different perspective had taken hold.  And off I went… 

This passion fed my ‘ego’ for a while - something I really needed at the time.  I aligned with an inspiring tribe of people that ‘understood’ my drive and helped me achieve my career and summit-goals. This included a number of kind and patient guides who became life-mentors and coaches as much as they were mountain guides. The insights and lessons that I learned from them and from my experiences helped build self-awareness, courage, confidence, and develop discipline and inner strength to see through barriers and overcome challenge. Mountains were the vehicle and the people I met along the way were the enablers to help unlock who I was, what ‘drove’ me, and most importantly what ‘fuelled’ my soul. 

Over twenty-five expeditions later climbing, trekking, biking and skiing in countries around the world I began to realise that what actually sparked me, what made my eyes light up and put ‘fire in my soul’ was so much more than mountain summits. The spark was so much more than ‘conquering’ trails, setting records, and looking for the ‘rah-rah-rah’ from a ‘like’ or a ‘retweet’… 

What truly sparked me and activated my energy was people. More specifically, sharing the journey in getting to some of these far-flung places (mentally and physically), the lessons learned along the way and, in some small way, prompting others to say ‘yes’ to stepping outside of their own metaphorical comfort zones. 

I came to this realisation very early in the pursuit of my climbing journey, but found myself downplaying it due to a strange inner drive to continue on my ‘summit-bagging path’ because it was the obvious, easier and more social-media friendly one. 

I began to deprioritise my authentic self and treated my true passion as a secondary by-product. I'm not sure I knew quite where I was 'at', at the time.

The day the earth moved…

After a while, I unsurprisingly found that feeding my ego through summits was no longer fulfilling or fuelling me. This was underlined during the 2015 Nepal earthquake, an event that shook me to my core.  

At the time of the earthquake, I was in Tibet, fully acclimatised and mid-way through an expedition to climb Shishapangma and Cho Oyu, two of the highest mountains in the world. My goal was to climb both mountains back-to-back in one season – this had only ever been done by one other woman. It was a big meaty challenge and one I’d worked and trained hard for. Lots of discipline, commitment, courage and creativity. 

I was passionate about the projects success. My journey was even being filmed as part of a short documentary and the small handful of social-media followers I had were being appropriately ‘spammed’ with updates on my progress. I’d been raising money for several incredible charities. I felt like I was doing the expedition for all the right reasons – checking all the boxes, so to speak. And on the surface I was – and it was all going to plan.  

The earthquake very quickly changed all that. Not only did it put an abrupt end to the expedition, it also prompted an immediate refocus mentally as well as physically. It challenged my purpose at its very core. 

In a way, it was karma’s way of saying, ‘where are you ‘at’?, and forcing an almost obvious answer.

Staying in Nepal following the earthquake was the easiest decision I’ve ever made. The calling was so intense that I can still feel it today, nearly 4 years on and haven’t felt anything like it since. 

I remember crying in my tent, still very much in shock from our experiences on the mountain. The tears weren’t because of what had physically happened on the mountain during the quake.  Rather, the tears flowed because I knew in my heart that I was absolutely terrified to stay in Nepal with all of the devastation, discomfort, unknowns and uncertainty. In the same breath, I knew without a shadow of doubt that I had to stay and that I was going to stay. Reconciling this fear with an overwhelming sense of purpose drew upon every bit of strength that I’d developed in my ‘mountaineering journey’, and using that strength to give back. To fulfill a calling that I simply could never have denied. So I stayed.

I became physically and emotionally involved in on-the-ground relief work both in Kathmandu and in the Khumbu region. I helped mobilise fundraising activities, working closely with several local and international charities. I learned firsthand about resilience, compassion, empathy, generosity, and kindness from some of the best teachers. I found incredible mentors who kindly took me under their wing and became like family.  

I felt I had a true purpose and that in embracing uncertainty, following my heart, and moving beyond a ‘fear of failure’ or following what I’d created as an artificial ‘pre-determined path’ had helped me to connect with what had truly fuelled me all along. And I don’t think that I’ve ever felt more secure or self-aware as a result – in an environment that could not have been more chaotic. During this time, mountains summits were never far from my thoughts but they no longer defined me or what I was truly capable of. 

When passion and purpose collide...

The earthquake never stopped me from climbing. It did however prompt a refocus and recalibration. Since 2015 I’ve continued to follow my passion for the mountains, climbing in Nepal and more recently in Canada and Alaska. But my focus and sense of ‘purpose’ has definitely become more defined and I no longer get the same ‘buzz’ off of a summit goal. The summit is for the ego. 

What I’ve learned is deeper and purpose-driven, from the ‘soul’ and from the heart. I now know that I climb for the people and the journey – sharing the experiences with others, and subsequently prodding, instigating and enabling others to ‘unlock’ their own stories and fulfil their own dreams - whether in a mountaineering environment or in life more broadly. 

Sometimes this is tactical – e.g. “How do you use a jumar? What’s the best down jacket? What’s the best training for an 8000’er.”  And sometimes, it’s about motivating people to realise their own journeys by prompting them to ‘check in,’ and understand what is truly stopping them from achieving their dreams. “What’s stopping you from going to Base Camp? Why don’t you ask for the time off? The worst your boss can say is, ‘no’, and removing self-doubt “Of course you can do it!” 

I’m grateful to organisations like Arc’teryx who have provided regular platforms to do this and supported me in sharing this narrative.  And I’m incredibly proud of those who use these forums as inspiration and prompts to, ‘say yes’. You know who you are!

So where am I ‘at’?

Like clockwork for the past 10 years, I find myself “at” the same place. That is, looking ahead to the pre-monsoon Himalayan climbing season asking myself “What am I going to climb this year… and why?” Whilst the more tactical aspects of Spring climbing plans are at the forefront of my mind, I continue to hold tight to aligning purpose and passion. 

In a world so heavily influenced by social media it’s easy to become distracted and portray an image that isn’t me or present a diluted version of what drives me or what my values are. Hence why my friends’ check-in was so well timed and gratefully received. 

I have a few exciting projects underway (my fingers tingle with energy as I type!).  Projects that have been developing in my mind for a while and that have engaged the imaginations and support of an incredible community of friends. 

So much of life is about leaning into the unknown. It’s about growth - moving toward people and moments you can’t predict the outcome of... A delicate balancing act of finding comfort in discomfort in a world that’s dynamic and constantly changing. It’s about adapting and making choices - some clear, some a bit foggier - that encourage us to move closer to the truth of who we are. This is something that I’m learning as I get older - and arguably wiser! 

I’m learning to trust in this truth. Owning it. Living it and breathing it. I’m not going to lie, it still feels like struggle to understand who I am and what I want but I have to remind myself that I’m forging a new path. Regularly asking myself, “what s ‘serving’ me and the world? What puts fire in my soul?” I’m learning that if something doesn’t feel right, to move on. I’m learning to follow my heart and my instincts. More often than not, they’re right…   

Thanks to prompts like, ‘Where are you “at”’, I’m learning to “check in.”  My inner compass is a measure. I have so much gratitude for an amazing tribe of people who help me to do this – because sometimes that inner compass needs a tiny bit of tweaking and recalibration.

When was the last time you checked in with yourself or with a friend and asked where you’re ‘at’? 

A small but simple gesture.

There are many days when I wonder what I’m doing and why - but then I stop, take a deep breath and pause. And I feel the growth and I'm excited where the adventure will lead….


Thanks for reading... xx 

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Careers, consulting, crevasses & cold – big mountains, big decisions and the lessons learned along the way

A passion for adventure balanced against a career in consulting has taught me a lot about the fine art of multi-tasking, deep breathing and smiling bravely through those moments when you realize that there are only 24 hours in the day and you've planned for 30. These are the moments when I find myself in the gym after a long day at work, gasping for breath on a treadmill whilst reading emails on my iphone and deciding what to have for my 11pm dinner once I've finished my third can of Red Bull. I’m exaggerating slightly – but you get my point..!

One of the most challenging parts of an expedition is in the preparation for the expedition itself – my experience in preparing for my expedition to climb Denali, the highest mountain in North America, has been no different. Managing work and personal commitments, time for training, charity fundraising, equipment organization, managing stakeholders, finances, and taking time out for myself - it's easy to become overwhelmed. And I have. 

Over the past few weeks I've had to consciously stop and take a few deep breaths, revisit the to-do checklist, re-define key dates, re-prioritize and let my body catch up with my brain. These are the times when I’ve really needed to focus and be disciplined in deciding what things on my 'to do' list relate directly to achieving my goals and which are just ‘nice to haves’.

Having been on over 25 major expeditions in the Himalayas, Andes, and the Alps over the past 9 years, I’ve realized that this planning and re-planning is a critical part of the process and will pay off in the longer-term. Discipline and rigor are critical in this preparatory stage so that I don't find myself on the mountain without a sleeping bag or return from an expedition without a job!

I’ve summarized below four key themes and lessons learned from expedition reflections and preparations...

Discipline – be disciplined in your focus on attaining your goal. 

A focus on the end goal is a bit like having a personal GPS. Once you type your destination into a GPS, it cleverly spits out step by step details in how to get there. If only there was a GPS of life..! I’ve learned to manage goals by breaking key activities and events down into priorities: What needs to get done today? What can wait until tomorrow? What can wait until next week? Over my morning Nespresso, I spend the first 15 minutes of every day prioritizing so I know exactly what I have on my plate for the day ahead. There are plenty of apps (e.g. Trello, GTask, Tik Tik) out there that can help with this - Wunderlist is a personal favorite. 

Before every expedition I spend time thinking about my end-goal and the steps (real and proverbial!) required to achieve it. Is it the summit? Is it to raise money for a particular charity? Is it to improve my skills and fitness? Is it to experience a new part of the world? I then write down the activities required to achieve my goals in a step-by-step list. 

I’ve found that without this rigor and focus, I’m easily distracted ad diverted. As a highly skilled procrastinator this includes distractions like the dishes that need washing, the floor that suddenly needs vacuuming or the trip to the grocery store that just can’t wait. Just as a traffic accident, road congestion and construction requires the GPS to recalibrate, I’ve learned that my daily ‘to do’ list helps me to keep sight on goals no irrespective of the detours that pop up along the way. 

Commitment – don’t give up when you’re forced beyond your comfort zone or when setbacks or disappointments happen. 

There’s a great quote by Kenneth Blanchard, ‘There's a difference between interest and commitment. When you're interested in doing something, you do it only when it's convenient. When you're committed to something, you accept no excuses; only results.” 

If I was only ‘interested’ in climbing Denali, I’d deprioritize training, planning, fundraising and expedition preparations, only focusing on the expedition when it was convenient.  Also, when on the expedition, I’d likely give-up with my first shiver in the -30-degree temperatures. Commitment to a project like Denali means that even when I’m exhausted from a long day of work, I still go to the gym to achieve my training goal. Similarly, it means that I’m laser-focused and committed to reaching the summit and descending safely, even when things get uncomfortable – which I anticipate will be regularly!

Those people who are successful in the mountains – as in life – are people who are unrelenting toward the pursuit of their goal. Sure, they experience setbacks and failures like everyone else. But what sets these people apart is their ability to get back on track and learn from their mistakes. Success and commitment to achieving a goal is about the ability to do this time and time again until they gain the prize that sets them apart.

A very recent example of commitment is the story of the 69-year old Chinese double amputee Xia Boyu. Last week on May 13th,  Mr. Xia summited Mount Everest on his fifth attempt after both feet were amputated in his first bid 43 years ago. In 1975, his team were trapped in a storm near the summit and he suffered severe frostbite, losing both his feet after he lent a teammate his sleeping bag.  In 1996, he was diagnosed with lymphoma, a form of blood cancer. After recovering from cancer, he attempted the summit three more times in 2014, 2015, and 2016. In 2014, climbing season was cancelled due to an avalanche on Everest. His attempt in 2015 was called off after a magnitude-8.1 earthquake shook Nepal and triggered more avalanches. Then, in his fourth attempt in 2016, Mr Xia's dream seemed within reach - the team was just 300ft from the summit when a blizzard forced him to turn back… And then last week, on his fifth attempt, Mr. Xia achieved his dream of reaching the highest point on earth and becoming the second double amputee to ever do so.  A tremendous achievement and a true testament to commitment and an unrelenting pursuit of a goal.

Courage – learn to say ‘no’. 

One of my favorite artists, Ed Sheeran once said, “I can’t tell you the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everyone’. How right he is..!

Learning to say ‘no’ takes courage and continues to be one the most challenging things I’ve had to learn in planning expeditions and everything that comes with it. Over the past few years, I’ve realized my people pleasing tendencies were creating stresses and inefficiencies which were impacting my work, personal life and time spent outdoors. Thanks to some great coaches and simple exercises in saying ‘no,’ I've begun to preserve my most valuable resource – time – while growing personally and professionally. By saying ‘no’ to some things, I’ve realized that I’m actually saying ‘yes’ to other things – for example, a steps toward a professional or mountaineering goal. Saying no to a new commitment honors your existing commitments and gives you the opportunity to successfully fulfill these commitments.

There are plenty of business books written on different ways to ‘say no’ and offering tips and tricks to help convert the ‘no’ into a yes. A few of my favorite tips are:

• Value your time. Know your commitments, and how valuable your time is. Then, when someone asks you to dedicate some of your time to a new commitment, you’ll know that you simply cannot do it. And tell them that.
• Know your priorities. If you do have some extra time, ask yourself whether this new commitment is how you want to spend that time? 
• Practice saying no. Practice makes perfect. Saying “no” as often as you can is a great way to get better at it and more comfortable with saying the word – it’s actually quite empowering. 

Creativity – look for ways to overlap things. 

Asking my boss for the two-months off to climb Everest was a nerve-wracking experience. I’d already listed out all of the reasons why he might say ‘no’ and hadn’t ever considered why he might say ‘yes’. As it turned out, he was an avid ‘arm-chair adventurer’, and immediately understood the drive-behind my nervous request. We spent the remainder of the meeting discussing the ‘leadership’ qualities of adventurers like Sir Ernest Shackleton and how these leadership qualities were also found in business leaders. My boss suggested that I conduct a presentation for one of his team meetings on ‘leadership lessons learned’ following my Everest expedition putting the lessons into the context of the project-based environment that I work in as a change management specialist. I obliged and a few months later following my return from Everest, was amazed at how much I’d learned from my interactions with our guide, other team members, the preparation for the expedition, and the challenges we faced individually and as a team on the mountain. 

From that first trip I started building a portfolio of “lessons learned” on a range of topics including risk management, decision making, communications, experiencing failure, and leading through adversity. Rather than seeing the time-off work as a ‘career limiting’ move, it became ‘career enhancing’, gave me confidence and independence and purpose. It tapped into my love of story-telling, adventure and I became a more effective consultant as a result.

A few years later I was approached by several colleagues to organize a charity trek of Mt. Kilimanjaro in Tanzania to support one of our firm’s charity partners, Wellbeing of Women.  Our team raised 30,000 GBP with that first trek and helped fund critical research into the health and wellbeing of women and babies. The news of our success spread across the firm and subsequent trips were quickly organized. Today, nearly five years later we’ve organized 7 charity treks to Kilimanjaro and have also added Everest Base Camp to the portfolio.  We’ve raised over 250,000 GBP for the charity. Equally importantly, over 50 colleagues have become friends, have learned to fundraise and have experienced literal highs (and lows!) together, forging friendships and memories that will last a lifetime.

So what's next?

"A master in the art of living draws no distinction between his work and his play; his labor and his leisure; his mind and his body; his education and his recreation. He hardly knows which is which. He simply pursues his vision of excellence through whatever he is doing, and leaves others to determine whether he is working or playing. To himself, he always appears to be doing both." An apt quote by British philosopher L.P. Jacks.

With just over two weeks before I depart for Denali, work commitments are largely organized, stakeholders are managed, bags are packed and I’ve only had a few ‘OMG’ moments on the treadmill - but most importantly, I am having fun, learning with every step of the journey - the consulting, crevasses, crampons, cold... and everything else.

My focus now turns to another goal - to raise funds and awareness for two incredible charities My goal is to raise $2,000 for Women's College Hospital (Canada) and 2,000 GBP for Wellbeing of Women (UK) to help fund critical and lifesaving research into cancers impacting the health and wellbeing of women and their families. Links are included below and all donations - no matter how big or small - are tremendously appreciated. 

So, if you've read all the way down of this article - brilliant and thank you (!) - I hope that you'll consider taking a quick minute to make a small donation to support lifesaving research.

Wellbeing of Women (UK): https://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/WellbeingofWomenDenali

Women's College Hospital (Canada): http://wchf.convio.net/site/TR?fr_id=1160&pg=entry

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