Outperform in China

I spent last Friday in Shanghai delivering a morning seminar on leadership and branding at the Shanghai National Accounting Institute. Invited by the Institute as part of a month long course for high flying leaders in the finance world of China I was the last keynote speaker of their training.

It was both a pleasure and a real honour to be invited, both in my capacity as the marketing director of the organisation I work for, but also having been identified as an interesting individual worthy of presenting to this important group because of my like of places that are high and cold!

The gathering of 55 finance directors from some of the largest companies in China was respectful and engaged for almost 4 hours as I talked about the responsibilities of leadership in the outdoors and in the board room as well as playing a few 'games' with them to help cement some of my thoughts.

The feedback has been great and I now hear that they want me to go back at some stage to meet the senior officials in the Ministry of Finance! A great expereince!

Outperform - Sweatshop leadership course - Wales

Last week I was out in the Welsh hills again taking a group of managers from the retail chain Sweatshop for a leadership development course in Mid Wales. The team experienced the joys of creating their own shelter in the wilderness and then sleeping rough under the stars. We covered around 18km of wilderness over the two days up and down some pretty taxing terrain. Each person had the opportunity to learn new skills and consider the tools and techniques of navigating and wilderness crafts in the somewhat varied weather of the region to the East of Aberystwyth.

Apart from ensuring that every team member was equipped to survive the rigours of the Welsh weather I was working with them to assess their Agility, Leadership, Responsibility and Communication skills on the hill. It was a great experience and the feedback was excellent.

This is the second year the UK retailer has taken a course with me and I am hopeful that others will follow.

Outperform - Island Peak Himalayan expedition - the ride home

There is nothing which can describe the helicopter ride back to Kathmandu - it was quite simply the best thing! What a way to end the expedition - two helicopters arrived for us. Fighting against the thin air one came to pick up our bags, and drop off some clearly essential supplies (flat screen TVs, microwaves and an assortment of other carefully wrapped packages. A mother and small child clambered on top of our bags and were whisked off ahead of our chopper which again unloaded everything from newspapers to what looked suspiciously like a flat packed wardrobe!

We were then treated to the best way to view the Himalayas from the hovering diving and contouring helicopter which had to land at Lukla (after only 15 minutes!) to pick up more fuel and then we were back in Kathmandu within an hour!

A wonderful end to a wonderful expedition.... I wonder if the wife will look kindly on the plan for a repeat visit to get to the top.....

Outperform - Island Peak Himalayan expedition - the walk down

Back at Chukung we found a slightly recovered Pete but going down had been the best thing to do. Both marks were full of the climb but we were not at all envious of them. The whole team had done our utmost to reach the top and it had only been a combination of physiological and physical barriers which had prevented us from doing so.

There is still unfinished business on Imja Tse (as the Nepalese call the mountain)!

Will we go back? maybe. Was it memorable? Definitely. A wonderful exhilarating, physically demanding and psychologically draining experience.

The decent from Chukung the next day was a tremendous push as we flew down the mountain as fast as we could. We called in on our friend the head monk at Tembouche to thank him for his prayers and to broach the idea of Mark Ws to set up an Internet link for the Head lama in the region to be able to use Skype to broadcast his daily prayers... seemed to go down well and mark is now to get back in touch to arrange a more detailed exploration of the idea with the Lama next year.

We descended to Namche in one go - a huge distance and a very long day which saw us arriving in the dusk. We were tired and most of our limbs ached but it had been fantastic and the views on the way (pictures) were nothing short of spectacular!

The next day was to bring its own exhilaration too - I had booked another helicopter.... well it seemed a good idea at the time... to take us back to Kathmandu direct from Namche - weather permitting.

Outperform - Island Peak Himalayan expedition - Attack Camp (part 2)

The day dawned slowly but with a clear and spectacular view around us. Behind us Island Peak's ice wall sat on the top of the immediate horizon (pictured) whilst around us were the most clear and beautiful mountains I had ever seen. It was as if Mother Nature was saying - 'OK you've had a lot of mist - just now look at what you have missed!' (pictured).

Pete got up to admire the view too but he was not in a good way and after a few hours he announced that he needed to go down, Looking at him I noticed his lips were blue and he was slurring his speech. Definitely time to descend and one of the Sherpas took him down to base camp 350m below us and then on back to Chukung.

I sat and waited for the others to come down. Around 15.30 I saw a couple of specks on the high horizon and signaled to one of the Sherpas to join me going yup to meet them. Very sensibly he grabbed a thermos of hot water, some mugs and tea and set off at a pace that I could not match!

I climbed up to around 5700m and met the two marks as they came down. they had had an amazing time but were unable to reach the top as it turned out to be too dangerous to scale the last 100m! We descended to Attack Camp and some food before packing everything up and then descending back to Chukung down the very steep tracks for the 8.5km trek.

Outperform - Island Peak Himalayan expedition - Attack Camp

We arrived at 'Attack Camp' (pictured) in the mist - getting used to it now! - after a very hard slog up the valley from Chukung. WE climbed glacial moraine out of Chukung and then passed just about every glacial feature known to geomorphologists! It was a spectacular array of glacial lakes, U shaped valleys with braided rivers and huge 'glacial erratic' boulders dumbed all over the valley floors in a series of random locations as the glacier had retreated after the last ice age. It was wonderful!

We sorted out the camp and had some food before trying to sleep. We had decided to leave as soon after 02.30 as we could in order to get to the summit in the early dawn - the best time for the snow to hold our weight on the high cornices. It was at this time that the lead guides decided to mention to us - in typical frank Nepalese style - that we were to be the first people this season to try to get to the summit and, just so we knew, three Japanese climbers had fallen off and been killed last year in an early attempt! So we spend the 'night' in 'the tent of awake'!

We were 'woken' at 02.30 with a cup of tea and the news that the two lead guides had 'popped up to the top' last night to have a look! They hadn't made it - forced back by a huge crevasse and a massive avalanche which had torn away the upper snows and cornices of the peak! 'Should we be climbing?' we asked. "Yes - we might as well have a go since you are all here" came the reply - not massively reassuring.

We set off at 03.30 with Pete and I relieved of our packs for the first section as Pete was still weak and I was suffering from increasing headaches and bouts of 'wow is that the ground?' dizziness. After only 30- 40 minutes of climbing it was clear to me that if I carried on I would have fallen off! The dizziness spells camp thick and fast and the last one was so bad Mark W had to stop me from walking off the edge. Time to go down!

Pete was sent down too - he was in a bad way and despite a minor protest he knew it was not in the interests of the team to carry on.

We descended and left the two Marks to go up with the two sherpas.

Once back in camp we both went back to bed and I managed to drift off to sleep as I listened first to the distant sounds of climbing and then just to the wind.

Outperform - Island Peak Himalayan expedition - Chukung

Only four or five dwellings, that double as lodges in order to add to an otherwise very meagre subsistence existence, make up Chukung (pictured) at 4743m. This is a godforsaken place with holes in the ground for toilets and no hot water. However, the lodges are clean and the people always ready with a smile. How on earth they manage to be so cheerful in this place is a mystery to me and an example to all the miseries in the cities of the western world bemoaning their situation - they have no idea!

We arrived around noon, having left Pheriche at 08.30 in the mist - again! Pete is suffering and pretty ill having picked up a bug from our designated cook (Sucre Sherpa) - who will not be going any further with us and who is quarantined at the end of the building! After a light lunch we got all our climbing gear together and headed out to the nearby hillside for a quick 'crash' course on using the 'gris gris' and other equipment we would need on the ice and snow of the final ascent.

Pete is an already accomplished climber so chose to go to bed to try to get rid of his 'cold'. The rest of us were shown the ropes - quite literally - and then after about an hour of huffing puffing and climbing up and down a steep scree slope the head guide (Singi Sherpa) pronounced himself satisfied with our cack handed efforts and said he thought we would "probably not fall off the mountain"! With this reassurance we all tramped back to the lodge across the swollen river for a cup of lemon tea and to reflect that the next time we had the bits of equipment to use it would be on the mountain and at 5800m!

The rest of the afternoon was spend resting and reading before we had an early meal and turned into the sleeping bags. Tomorrow we would go to 'Attack Camp' at almost 5500m!

Outperform - Island Peak Himalayan expedition - Pheriche

Pheriche (pictured) is, as much as I could see in the mist which hung over the settlement for most of the day, a very small hamlet in a glacial outflow valley bottom. Just up the valley is a yak farm where the yaks which are used for the major Everest expeditions are kept. They roam across the valley floor in a never ending stoop for elusive edible grasses which do their best to hide in the nooks and crevices between the rocks. Looking up I could - very occasionally during the day - get a glimpse of the mountains which the others assured me were towering above us. I could not see a thing - it could have been Snowdonia except my breathing - or difficulty doing it - along with the headache - kept reminding me that this was a little higher up than Snowdon!

As I lay in bed - in my sleeping bag for the first time having had a look at the sheets and made a hasty grab for the down of my Russian made bag! - I listened to the rats scurrying about their business in the walls. I must admit I felt a huge sense of achievement that I had made it this far without suffering too much. Altitude sickness could have kicked in at any time and I fully expected it to do so within minutes of me landing at Lukla. This was a great feeling and the next day was to be a push to the highest I had ever been (as was this) and a place where there is only 50% of the oxygen that is available to the average Brit on the Clapham Omnibus in London! After a flight from Kathmandu to Lukla, a walk to Namche Bazzar and only one rest day before we ascended to here I was astonished that I wasn't crawling back down the mountain with AMS (Acute Mountain Sickness)... it was only a matter of time.

Outperform - Island Peak Himalayan expedition - Namche Bazaar via Tengboche to Pheriche

Before I give details of the Outperform leadership and communications course in Wales I thought I have better finish off the Island Peak story!

After what turned out to be the last foray with warm water for the next 6 days we set off from Namche early on the 2nd September bound for Pheriche at 4240m. 10.5 hours of walking uphill later we arrived as darkness was settling on this small outpost of humanity in the high and barren landscape below Everest and the Khumbu Glacier. We had stopped en route at the famous hill top Buddist monastery of Tengboche at 3867m (pictured). There we met with the head of the monastery (pictured) who took us to his private rooms and gave us a blessing for our travels and prayed for good fortune and good weather - we needed a good bit of both if we were to achieve our goal!

The day was a mix of light drizzle and heavy drizzle, followed by more light drizzle... Goodness knows what we would have had without the blessing!

Outperform - Himalayas wait whilst Wales calls

More to follow soon but for now - Wales calls.....

There will be more updates to finish the Himalayan story - but I have to take a team out into the wilds of Wales now...

Outperform - Island Peak Himalayan expedition - Lukla to Namche Bazaar

... a wonderful roller coaster helicopter ride in the early morning mists and low clouds got us from KMD to Lukla at 2804m.

It was an amazing start to our adventure but we were now significantly behind schedule. We all knew that we would now be working against the clock, not only the time but also our biological clocks and their ability to assimilate enough time to be able to ensure that Mark Kelly and I - who had not already been to Everest base camp - had time to acclimatise without the dangers of suffering altitude sickness on the way up.

After a quick cup of tea - we started walking up to Namche Bazarr at 3440m.

There is not much to say about the walk to Namche... it just kept going up, and up, and up and when we got bored of going up it gave us a little flat bit .... then went up again!

We were walking pretty fast for a team in this altitude and few stops but plenty of water allowed us to cover the 10.4 miles to arrive in Namche as it was getting dark at around 18.30 after a really hard day which left me fighting for breath as the altitude and reduced oxygen kicked in.

The route was pretty spectacular not least from the deep ravines and high wire bridges but also because over the last few weeks there had been torrential rain with the monsoon season lingering in the mountains far later than normal. The result was a significant number of landslides which required us to pick our way around on a regular basis.

WE managed to call in at Monjo village - whrre Mark Wood has adopted a local school and provided laptops and links to the outside world via Skype for the school and the teachers. We arrived to find the school recently painted by the last expedition Mark had taken up a week before but the lap tops were all stored neatly away and not in use due to a big meeting in the technology room earlier that week by the village. We could only hope that the laptops would be out and used again soon by the children.

Namchee was the last place we would be able to have a hot shower and - still gasping for breath and with a rising headache from the altitude - I gratefully indulged in the last hot water for 6 days!

Outperform - Island Peak Himalayan expedition - more details

... the next day was equally frustrating but with a twist! We again turned up at the airport .... waited for 4 hours and then everything was canceled. We hired a van to take us back to the hotel and on the way back there was a mood of irritation and frustration until someone said.. "It is such a shame we couldn't just get a helicopter!". we all looked at each other.... why not?!!! A series of telephone calls to our local fixer and we had booked a helicopter for the next day! Maybe we would be out on the mountains after all! The good thing about the helicopter is that it needs 500m less visibility than a plane and that is the length of the runway at Lukla!

Unfortunately the next day the weather in the mountains was even worse and nothing moved. We again went back to the hotel and the smoothie bar!

The 1st September dawned bright and cloudless.... we sped out to the airport and mobbed the helicopter team. There was much shaking of heads and sucking of teeth (I wondered if they had met my plumber!). No there was no good weather... no it was a bad flying day... yes we could wait in the lounge ... no they didn't think we would go.... an hour later Mark K came up the stairs two at a time with a tray of coffees in his hands - nice guesture... "What are you guys waiting for!?!" he yelled and we tumbled down the stairs after him... we had an hour window of good weather - and were off!

Outperform - Island Peak Himalayan expedition - more details

In response to a number of questions here is some more detail of the Island Peak expedition in the Himalayas last week....

I was sitting in a hotel room in Mumbai - as you do - when the phone rang. It was Mark Wood from Lukla - it was also 05.30!

There had been a fatal plane crash. Our team (the Everest Base Camp expedition run by Mark's company - Snowball Expeditions) were not involved but there were 15 dead and the flights into and out of Lukla were all cancelled. There had already been enough bad weather to stop flights for the 10 days before and Mark wanted to get a note to his blog to reassure all people at home that all was well and the team would get out as soon as they could.

This was the start of a whirlwind 10 days of my own expedition to climb Island Peak in the Everest range.

Thank goodness that mu son (Tom) was safe and that the team were now in a lodge in Lukla on the final leg of their journey out of the Himalayas.

The next day I flew to Delhi and then to Kathmandu.

There remained a day of waiting but the team managed to get two aircraft out of Lukla in the afternoon of 26th August> There was a good deal of work to do to get the team out of KMD as although everyone had insurance cover - the insurers were less than helpful in many cases. Mark Kelly - one of my fellow explorers for Island Peak - and I sat in the reception of the team hotel with laptops and one after the other helped sort insurance and flights for the team to get away. By later evening we had everyone sorted with a few stragglers dealt with the next day.

It wasn't over though.... After seeing Tom off on his early morning flight on the 28th one of the team members (Lizzy) called from the departure lounge of the airport. She had fainted and cracked her head on the way down - there was blood everywhere and the airline were refusing to let her fly! Mark Kelly and Pete Bradley (our medic for Island Peak) rushed off to take her to hospital which Mark Wood and I got the remaining team members away... and we hadn't even got our flights out sorted yet!

The next 24hours consisted of hospital visits, Mark K and Pete flying round KMD in an ambulance with sirens and everything dealing with Lizzy and then... eventually Lizzy booked on a flight - with the (poor) help of her insurers. I had spend a good deal of time on the web and the phone working with Lizzy, doctors, insurers and airlines to help get her away.... Now we could turn to our own adventure!

We had booked a flight the next day (already a day behind on our already tight schedule) and duely arrived at the alloted hour (06.00) at the airport ready to go. After 4 hours of delay they canceled the flights to Lukla for the day! We returned to the hotel frustrated and fed up. We then retired to our haven of quiet in the hubub of Kathmandu - a smoothie and coffee bar in Mandeala Street - which would have not looked out of place in central London or Manhatten!

A number of cappuchinos and banana smoothies later and we decided to try again the next day....

Outperform leadership development course - Wales

Having just about had time to breathe after the Himalayas - where we had roughly 50% of the required oxygen available to us on the Island Peak expedition - I have just finished packing for the Outperform training course in the Mid Wales mountains this week.

I will be taking a team of 8 people out into the wilds of Wales for an 'extreme experience' tackling some of the remoter areas of the region to the East of Aberystwyth. The team will be assembling at 18.00 on Tuesday after which 'anything could happen' - and probably will! All they know is that they will be back home on Thursday evening - and that I can promise they will. between arrival and then, though - they are in for a few surprises!

Outperform and Snowball Expeditions Island Peak Himalayan expedition

I am now sitting in the departure lounge at Kathmandu airport about to leave for the UK after an incredible week in the high Himalayan region of Nepal with Mark Wood of Snowball Expeditions and two other guys, Mark Kelly (Triathlete) and Pete Bradley (Medic).

The expedition was a success with both Mark W and Mark K making it within 100m of the top of Island Peak. Unfortunately altitude sickness prevented both Pete and I from reaching the top though I managed to get to 5,700m later in the day to take tea up to the returning duo.

It has been the most amazing trip, full of trials and tribulations. The key issue has been the speed of our ascent. We have been operating well within the safety measure set by medical advice but I still suffered from headaches and the bout of dizziness which put paid to my final ascent was a clear warning that we were right at the edge of the envelope.

The pictures say it all and you can see more at markwoodexplorer.com