The MountainWorld™ Blog

Lessons on Leadership & Teamwork from 700m Below Ground

The mountains have taught me a great deal about leadership and teamwork over the years. It seems that often the hardest of situations - risk, challenge, death - in life teach us the most about these at-times-elusive concepts. 

But, of course, one doesn't have to climb up to learn about teamwork and leadership, or about struggling for your life. The 33 trapped miners in northern Chile are a perfect example of how leaders and teams often develop naturally in situations of extreme stress. 

Over at Knowledge@Wharton's website, they have a great interview with Francisco Javier Garrido. The author of The Soul of Strategy and an expert on leadership, Garrido speaks to Wharton about the situation unfolding 700 meters below ground in Chile, and how lessons from there can be applied to the business world...and probably all of our lives in general. 

Read the interview with Francisco Javier Garrido here...

Jake Norton is an Everest climber, guide, photographer, writer, and motivational speaker from Colorado.

Thursday Thought: The Oft-Forgotten H. W. "Bill" Tilman

I've long been an admirer of Harold William "Bill" Tilman (1898-1977).

I first encountered his name - and his legend - on my first trip to Nepal in 1992. My trip leader, Nick Yardley, and our sirdar, Urgen Sherpa, pointed out a distant, rugged pass leading from the Langtang Valley into the Jugal Himal and on to Paanch Pokhari (Five Lakes) called Tilman's Col. Nick explained that it was first explored by Bill Tilman back in 1949.

Since then, I've come to "know" Tilman as the ardent explorer he was. A true pioneer and often labeled "the 20th Century's last true explorer" - a label he would no doubt scoff at - Tilman logged countless miles in the remotest corners of the globe. He relished climbing peaks that were proverbially "off the map", and made every effort to break new ground in all that he did.

Like many of his generation, Tilman was also a war veteran, and was decorated for his service in both World Wars. When he decided many of the more popular ranges were getting too crowded, Tilman bought a sailboat, taught himself to sail, and began 25 plus years of exploration in the Arctic and Antarctic waters looking for new peaks to climb.

In his career, Tilman achieved great things. Some of his accomplishments are:

• 1930: First ascent of West Ridge of Batian (Mount Kenya), and traverses to  Nelion, with Eric Shipton
• 1932: Tilman ascends Mounts Speke, Baker, and Stanley in the Ruwenzori Mountains of Uganda, with Eric Shipton
• 1933: Solo ascent of Kilimanjaro
• 1934: Tilman and Shipton penetrate the Nanda Devi Sanctuary, the first to do so
• 1935: Tilman is a member of the Mount Everest Reconnaissance Expedition
• 1936: First ascent of Nanda Devi, reaching the summit with Noel Odell
• 1937: Karakoram Reconnaissance with Eric Shipton
• 1938: Climbs with others to 27,200 feet on Everest without oxygen
• 1949: Exploration of Langtang and Ganesh Himal, and first ascent of Paldor
• 1950: Leads British Annapurna Expedition, nearly summits Annapurna IV
• 1950: Does first reconnaissance of Everest's South Side with Charles Houston

The list goes on...and on...and on. 

But, what I've valued most about Tilman in reading his books - and in reading what others had to say about him - is his work ethic, his value of teamwork, ethics, and philosophy about the mountains and the mountain way. 

Interestingly, though, you won't find much on the web about Bill Tilman. There is a wonderful site by Bob Conlay, who sailed with Tilman and adventured with him from 1956-1977. And, there's David Glen's site for his book WARRIOR WANDERER The Life and Times of the Legendary Explorer Bill Tilman. There's also Treescaper's album on his travels with Tilman on Flickr. Other than that, not too much.

Perhaps it's Tilman's zest for exploration rather than notoriety, and his humble (but tough), somewhat enigmatic ways that have kept him out of the limelight. And, that's probably how Tilman would have liked it; as Glen writes, Tilman was "a man whose basic shyness and reticence to boast of his astonishing achievements belied a great sense of honor in the way he conducted his life."

And, I would add, perhaps in the way he conducted his death: In 1977, at nearly 80 years old, Tilman set sail in the tug En Avant with five others. On November 1, 1977, the left Rio de Janeiro, bound for the Falkland Islands. They disappeared without a trace...

So, below are some of my favorite quotes - mostly by but some about - Bill Tilman. Enjoy!

The truism that we climb on the shoulders of our predecessors is sometimes forgotten, and it is difficult to exaggerate the important of the part which earlier failures play in the final success. The Himalayan peaks over, say, 23,000 ft. which have been climbed at the first attempt can be numbered on the fingers of one hand, and even if the present climb be cited to the contrary, the answer is that we had the inestimable advantage of knowing where to make our effort and how to get there - knowledge gained for us by our forerunners. And apart from previous experience on the actual mountain there is the vast fund of accumulated knowledge of high climbing in general to draw upon; for though experiences may be "the name men give to their mistakes" it does not lessen their value to those who are willing to learn.

- from Ascent of Nanda Devi, 1937

It was but a short three months that we had met, many of us strangers, but inspired by a single hope and bound by a common purpose. This purpose was only achieved by team-work, team-work the more remarkable on account of the two different nationalities; and though these two nations have a common origin they are for that reason more critical of each other's shortcomings - as relationship leads proverbially to ill-feeling. The Americans and ourselves do not always see eye to eye, but on those rare occasions when we come together to do a job of work, as, for example, in war or in the more serious matter of climbing a mountain, we seem to pull together very well.

There each man pulled his weight each must share the credit; for, though it is natural for each man to have his own aspirations, it is in mountaineering, more than in most things, that we try to believe:

        The game is more than the players of the game,
        And the ship is more than the crew.

- from Ascent of Nanda Devi, 1937

A propos of writing books Dr. Johnson's opinion was that "any blockhead can write if he sets himself doggedly to it". I should like to alter that and say, " any blockhead can write a book if he has something to write about" - that I have anything to write about is entirely due to my companions, British and American, to whom I dedicate this book.

- from the preface to Ascent of Nanda Devi, 1937

We live and learn, and big mountains are stern teachers.

-from Two Mountains and a River

After the first joy in victory came a feeling of sadness that the mountain had succumbed, that the proud head of the goddess was bowed... [That night] each little incident of the climb was gone over again and again, and I remember, in the small hours when the spark of life burns lowest, the feeling which predominated over all was one of remorse at the fall of a giant. It is the same sort of contrition that one feels at the shooting of an elephant, for however thrilling and arduous the chase, however great has been the call upon skill, perseverance, and endurance, and however gratifying the weight of the ivory, when the great bulk crashes to the ground achievement seems to have been bought at the too high cost of sacrilege.

-reflecting on reaching the summit of Nanda Devi, from Ascent of Nanda Devi

No one goes so far or so fast as the man who does not know where he is going. 

Any worthwhile expedition can be planned on the back of an envelope.

Tilman was always first away in the morning, carrying a load in excess of the standard Sherpa load. He always arrived first at the day's destination. Sometimes he would run along parts of the route. He would have tea brewing by the time the rest caught up with him and then he would praise those who had made good time, and yell and scream at those he thought had been lazy or lacking in some way. On at least one rest day he made all his Sherpas a cake. Tashi, the Sherpa who was translating all this for me, was made to repeat this fact several times. He was always the first to cross turbulent streams, pass hard rocky sections, and shoulder awkward loads.

- Sherpa Norbu, on climbing with H.W. Tilman in the 1930's

And, finally:

Put on a good pair of boots and walk out the door.

-H.W. "Bill" Tilman on how to have an adventure

Jake Norton is an Everest climber, guide, photographer, writer, and motivational speaker from Colorado.

Wisdom is found in the most unlikely places...

Wisdom is found in the most unlikely places...

When I speak to groups around the world, a critical component to my presentations always is teamwork: no matter how strong, how skilled, how powerful we are, none of us can climb our Everest all alone. While talking about teamwork, I always like to stress that we need to recognize all members of a team - from the expedition leader to the the yak herder (like Chuldum on the right). It takes all of them to make an expedition team function, and often times, upon talking and asking, we find that it is the yak herder, or the porter, who has critical nuggets of wisdom to share and which we can apply to our lives.

 To some extent, that is the driving notion behind an upcoming film called The Philosopher Kings (see trailer below).

I just watched the trailer, and it immediately brought me back to September 7, 1993,  when I was a student in Nepal and had just moved in with my village homestay family in the small village of Shyam Pati.

My family was a poor family of the Newar tribe. In their small, 2-room, mud-brick house lived three generations: Ram Gopal and Kamala Shrestha, the mother and father; their two children, Sita and Bale; and their granfather, Babou. Ram Gopal and Kamala ran a small tea house and a subsistence farm in the village, and neither had ever been to school. By most standards, they were simply illiterate farmers.

After a few hours in their home, however, I found that this family's wisdom transcended education and the standard norms, for Ram Gopal, Kamala, and Babou had a wisdom that cannot be taught...but can be learned and can be shared. It was the wisdom of experience, of living life without opportunity, but with hard work, without financial means or material wealth, but with grace, honor, and far more spiritual and mental wealth than I had ever encountered.

From this humble family in the middle hills of Nepal, I learned more about life and and living than the highest priced university education could teach: that money does not equal happiness. The former is simply a means to an end, and the latter a unique and essential end in itself. Ran and his family taught me that you can have nothing and yet be generous beyond words...that you can have no real education and yet be smarter than most...and, most importantly, that a simple smile and an open heart can transcend all differences in culture and creed, race, religion, and language.

And, finally, Ram and his amazing family taught me to never overlook the often overlooked people - it is often their stories, their lives, and their wisdom which teaches us the greatest of lessons.

This is, in essence, the driving theme (from what I can tell) of The Philosopher Kings. As the website describes it:

In his quest to explore how we should best live, Socrates would often ask his fellow citizens, "What is the good life?" In America, more than fifteen hundred years later, a third of the population is clinically depressed, the suicide rate is at an all-time high, and kids are shooting their classmates. Moreover, it seems that much of the current destruction and misdirection in the world is being caused by our best-educated and most "qualified" citizens. Who do we turn to for guidance during these trying times? What is the answer to Socrates' age-old question "what is the good life?" and is anyone even asking anymore?

From the producers of the multiple-award winning Flight from Death comes The Philosopher Kings, a documentary film about the kind of wisdom that gets you through the day - the wisdom that comes from surviving hard times, lost loves, shattered dreams, and bad choices. To shed light on this matter, The Philosopher Kings goes deep into our nation's most well-respected and prestigious universities to seek wisdom from the people who see it all and have been through it all - the janitorial staff. Set against the backdrop of young people yearning for knowledge to carry them through their lives, the film explores the wisdom that only living life can bring.

"A single conversation with a wise man is better than ten years of study." ~ Chinese Proverb

Take a few moments to watch the trailer...and let me know what you think!

- Jake Norton is an Everest climber, guide, photographer, writer, and motivational speaker from Colorado.

Charles Houston & The Brotherhood of the Rope

Last night, at the American Mountaineering Center here in Golden, Colorado, I was fortunate enough to see a presentation on the life and climbs of Dr. Charles Houston and his new biography, The Brotherhood of the Rope, written by Bernadette McDonald and published by The Mountaineers Books.

The evening would have been amazing simply for the crowd it drew out of the history of American mountaineering: Tom Hornbein, Dee Molenaar, Bob Craig, and Bob Bates to name a few. Charlie Houston of course was there, too, sharing stories from his times in India directing the Peace Corps, his work on high altitude illness, the new Altitude Research Center, and of course his epic journeys to K2 - the world's second highest mountain, in 1938 and 1953. (See Houston's classic book K2: The Savage Mountain for the full story of the 1953 expedition.)

I have written a bit about the concept of the brotherhood of the rope recently on this blog, and David Zinger has some great pieces on his blog as well. 

As I listened to Houston recount his team's experiences on K2 so many years ago, their harrowing rescue attempt to save the life of teammate Art Gilke, and the dramatic arrest of the falling team by Pete Schoening, I couldn't help but think of my good friend Dave Hahn and the climate on Everest these days.

Much has been written about the tragedy of David Sharp's death on Everest last spring, and the stunning survival of Lincoln Hall several days later. Sadly, the events that continue to unfold on the mountain - and on other peaks - have cast somewhat of a negative shadow on the climbing world, casting climbers as a callous lot seeking self-fulfillment at the expense of all else.

This may indeed be true of some, but it is not indicative of the whole any more than the unethical acts of the Enron's of big business are representative of business as a whole.

On Sunday night, after reaching the summit of Everest for an amazing 9th time, my good friend Dave Hahn and Phinjo Sherpa came upon Usha Bista, a fallen member of the Nepal Democratic Team expedition. She was unconscious, clinging to life through a haze of high altitude cerebral and pulmonary edema at 27,500 feet.

Tired, exhausted, but not swayed, Dave and Phinjo immediately went to work, dragging Usha downhill, administering first aid and medication as needed. It was undoubtedly a heroic effort, and resulted many hours later in getting Usha to the tents of a medical expedition at Camp III on the Lhotse Face.

Simply put, without Dave and Phinjo risking their safety to help, Usha would be dead today. Period. Do Dave and Phinjo deserve a medal? Perhaps. Dave earned the David A. Sowles Award in 2001 along with other members of our 2001 Mallory & Irvine Research Expedition for a heroic rescue high on Everest that year.

However, Dave and Phinjo did not stop to help Usha with the hopes of getting recognition. They did not do it for a pat on the back, articles in the papers, or an interview on CNN. Rather, they did it for Usha.

They did it to save a life. 

They did it, simply, because it was the right thing to do.

Back in 1953, Charles Houston and his team struggled against the odds to bring Art Gilke down K2. Things looked grim. The outlook was not good, and the risks were huge. In their attempt the entire team nearly died.

But, as Houston said last night in his lecture: None of us, not a single one, could have left Art there on that mountain. We were a team, we did this together or we didn't do it at all.

Dave and Phinjo, Houston and his team...it is the Brotherhood of the Rope at work.

I'll ask again the questions I posed a week ago:

Am I willing to risk my goals to help those in need?

At what point do my ethics supersede my ambition?

- Jake Norton is an Everest climber, guide, photographer, writer, and motivational speaker from Colorado.

For those of you interested in reading more about the ethics of Everest and the events on the mountain this year, please visit these great sites: The Adventure Blog, The Adventurist, and Alan Arnette. 

Super Sherpas - The Backbone of Himalayan Mountaineering

This spring on the slopes of Mount Everest a timely (and, in my opinion, long overdue) documentary will be created: Super Sherpas. Focusing primarily on two amazing Sherpa climbers, Apa and Lhakpa Gelu, the film will document their ascent of Everest via the traditional Southeast Ridge Route.

For Apa Sherpa (pictured at left in 2002 at Khumbu Basecamp), he will attempt to summit for a record seventeenth (yes, 17th!) time, breaking his own record set last year of 16 summits of Everest.

Lhakpa Gelu Sherpa set a world record on May 25, 2003, by reaching the summit from Basecamp in an astonishing 10 hours 56 minutes - that's a climbing speed of roughly 1,000 vertical feet per hour!

Together, Apa and Lhakpa Gelu will help show the world the true backbone of Himalayan climbing: the Nepali Sherpa and other Nepali tribesmen (see my article here on the The Sherpas (and sherpas) of Nepali Climbing).

It is sad, but not surprising, how little attention and recognition the Nepali people get for their contributions to Himalayan climbing. From the very first attempt on Everest in 1921, Sherpa climbers were chosen in Darjeeling, India, to accompany the 1921 Reconnaissance Expedition and assist with climbing and load carrying. The following year, 1922, seven Sherpa were killed when a massive avalanche swept them off the North Col Headwall. George Mallory, who was with the 7 Sherpa on the headwall and barely avoided dying himself, wrote to his wife Ruth of the tragedy:

The consequences of my mistake are so terrible; it seems almost impossible to believe that it has happened forever and that I can do nothing to make it good. There is no obligation I have so much wanted to honor as that of taking care of these men.

And, of course, it was Sherpa Tenzin Norgay who, in 1953, forged the way up the final steps of the Southeast Ridge Route with young Edmund Hillary and, on May 30, 1953, the two became the first people to reach the 29,035 foot summit of Everest. Edmund Hillary would later be knighted for his accomplishment; Tenzin Norgay never received such accolades. (Through his efforts and love for the Sherpa people, however, Sir Edmund Hillary has given back in strides to Tenzin's countrymen through The Himalayan Trust and other initiatives.)

These days, little has changed for the Sherpa and other Nepali people who climb in the high mountains. They still do the lion's share of the work - setting fixed lines, carrying tents, food, oxygen, and equipment into The Death Zone and the Khumbu Icefall - and sadly get the mouse's share of the credit for it.

For many of us, names like Edmund Hillary, Jim Whittaker, Ed Viesturs, Reinhold Messner, John Krakauer and more are common and known. But Apa Sherpa, Lhakpa Gelu, and my close friends like Man Bahadur Tamang, Danuru Sherpa, Panuru Sherpa, Karma Rita Sherpa, and others are basically unknown - even though they have all climbed Everest multiple times and other 8000 meter peaks as well. (See my newsletter from June, 2006, for a tribute to my friend Ang Phinjo Sherpa who died in the Khumbu Icefall last year.)

And, I am guilty, too. Even though I give back to the Nepali community regularly - by being a Board Member of Porters Progress, sponsoring Kancha Tamang through school and helping him get a foothold in life, sponsoring a child through Educate the Children, and my time studying and working in Nepal - I still have gained a great deal more from my climbs on Everest and elsewhere in the Himalaya than my Nepali and Sherpa climbing friends.

In my keynotes, I speak about this when discussing the importance of teamwork in reaching our life summits. The recognition (or lack thereof) the Sherpa receive for their efforts in the high mountains can only be considered a failure of teamwork.

They give their all, regularly and without fail, in the most inhospitable environment on earth. They risk their lives daily to help others reach their goals. And they do it all with a smile, a gracious Namaste, and a humbleness which is uniquely Nepalese. Through their efforts, members of the climbing team reach their goals, realize their dreams, stand on the summit, while many of the Sherpa return to lives of subsistence farming in one of the poorest countries on earth.

For a team to function fully and effectively, each and every member must be recognized for their contributions. Whether they sweep the floor or give the press conferences, a functional team recognizes that each member of that team made the success - or failure - possible.

So, when choosing your partners for the next climb, make a mental note to acknowledge their contributions, from the bottom to the top. If your teammates and your partners feel acknowledged, feel that their efforts have been recognized, the entire team benefits and the summit prospects improve.

Just ask Apa or Lhakpa Gelu...

- Jake Norton is an Everest climber, guide, photographer, writer, and motivational speaker from Colorado.   

Teamwork Revisited

I have written about teamwork in past posts here, and it is a critical component in my keynote presentation Climb Your Everest. Since it is such an essential component to success on Mount Everest and, likewise, on the Everests we all have in our personal and professional lives, I wanted to come back to it today.

Interestingly - and coincidentally - I received a link in email today to an article entitled Rewriting History - A New Peak by Pat Booth from the website Stuff from New Zealand. In the article, Booth recounts elements of Sir Edmund Hillary's famous ascent of Everest with Sherpa Tenzing Norgay in 1953, and his historic jaunt to the South Pole in 1958. While writing about the former, Booth recounts a segment of a letter he received from Hillary three months after Hillary & Tenzing's ascent of Everest. In it, Hillary speaks candidly about their climb and the teamwork necessary to make the ascent:

Never in the history of Himalayan mountaineering has the responsibility for success been so widely spread amongst members of the expedition. If [Sir John] Hunt had been anything less of a brilliant and determined planner; if [George] Lowe had failed to make a safe and practicable route up the steep Lhotse ice face; if [Charles] Evans and [Tom] Bourdillon had not succeeded in pioneering the route to the South Summit; if all the numerous arduous and difficult jobs had not been performed with courage and resourcefulness our attempt would certainly have failed.

Tenzing and I were given the opportunity to cap off this accumulated store of hard endeavour. That we were successful must be entirely to the credit of the whole expedition. (quoted from here)

This is a point I stress in my keynote presentations: to succeed on a mountain - be it a physical or metaphorical one - teamwork is essential. Each and every member of the team must be selflessly dedicated to the end goal. No one can be out for their own best interest, no one can be looking out for number one at the expense of the team goals.

The only thing I would add to Hillary's account is that there were many others involved in the team success in 1953. There were Sherpa like my friend Ngawang Gombu, who was only 16 and carried loads to 26,000 feet. (Gombu would later summit Everest with Jim Whittaker in 1963 and become the first person to reach the top twice with his ascent in 1965.) There were also low-altitude porters and yak herders who played a less romantic but no-less essential role by getting the equipment from the lowlands to the base of the mountain. There were families back home in the UK and New Zealand who offered their support, both emotional and financial; there were planners and fund raisers who helped bring the expedition from dream to reality.

Of course Hillary did not mention every one of these people in his letter to Pat Booth so many years ago. He summed it up perfectly in that last paragraph: Tenzing and I were given the opportunity to cap off this accumulated store of hard endeavour. That we were successful must be entirely to the credit of the whole expedition.

And that is my whole point: climbing our mountains often leads to a solitary achievement, to a single person standing on the tippy-top. But, the way is paved by the efforts of many, by the sweat, toil, tears, and laughter of the entire team. We should not forget them while we bask in the glory of achievement, and we should always remember that all we accomplish is directly thanks to the efforts of the team.