The wonder of Everest

Everest has always and will always be one of the focal points in world climbing news, and despite its popularity in modern times, remains a sacred and spiritual summit for all people of the world.

Looking back over the lifespan of the Superclimb site, no one topic has been more spoken or written about than Everest, the ‘mother goddess of the universe’, as the Tibetans call it.

In 1999 when Superclimb was born, Everest was really hot news, not only in climbing circles but in South African general news. Ian Woodhall and Cathy O’Dowd had been involved in the fateful 1996 Everest season where 8 climbers lost their lives high on the peak. They had eventually summited from the south side, and now were attempting the peak from the north.

For the first time in our country, Everest was a household name for South Africans.

All said and done, Cathy came out trumps when she became the first woman ever to climb the world’s highest mountain from different sides, a feat South Africans and woman all over the world can celebrate.

Since the turn of the millennium, different South Africans have tried every year to gain the summit of the world, some with more success than others.

Who can forget the Discovery expedition where Alex Harris and Sean Disney walked off the mountain and their cameraman Sean Wisedale summited without them days later! Wisedale went on with Discovery to become the first South African to climb the ‘7 summits’, the highest mountains on each of the continents, Harris and Disney’s dream.

The story doesn’t end there though, as Alex returned to Everest again with Sibusiso Vilane, who had become the first black African to summit Everest, and together they climbed the north ridge, a wonderful image of the rainbow nation and what can be done in a spirit of unity, guts and determination.

Disney also finally reached his goal, guiding clients for his company Adventure Dynamics. More recently, the likes of Cape Town’s Ronnie Muhl, Mike Patterson, and Robby Kojetin in 2010 (to name a few) have all waved the SA flag on the summit.

Vilane and Harris, in true expedition mode, went on to trek unassisted across Antarctica to the South Pole.

Sure these days there is a load of bad press about what is going on at Everest. And often rightly so. Hundreds of people marching up in a line for the summit each year, stepping over half dead people and not helping, leaving garbage all over the place and wrecking the local environment.

But it still remains a tremendous motivator for millions of people around the globe, and Vilane is a testament to how much a hunk of rock in the sky can change people’s lives for the positive.

I was privileged enough to attend a presentation by Vilane in Cape Town 2009. His story is one of universal hope, without all the ego and self-interest that so often goes with climbing the world’s highest mountains.

The article I wrote post the presentation captures some of my feelings, and is one of my favourite Superclimb articles on ‘the mother goddess’:

A Dream Encourager

I recently went to a breakfast hosted by the Amy Beihl Foundation in Cape Town, and was delighted to hear the story of Everest summiteer Sibusiso Vilane.

In 2003, Vilane became the first Black African to reach the top of the world. A game ranger by trade, he had almost no mountaineering experience. How did he do it? Allow me to share some of his story with you now.

So many Everest success stories these days run along similar lines- I had a dream, I did this and that, I climbed here and there and this is me on the summit.

What a refreshing and enriching experience it was to listen to Sibusiso’s Everest presentation.

Vilane spoke from the heart, and about the experience, not in a personal achievement light, but rather within the context of representing the African community.

In a sport which so often revolves around ego and self-achievement, Vilane turned the whole fiasco that climbing Everest has so often become in the past decade (queues of people all standing on one another to reach the top) on it’s head.

Speaking to a professional audience in Cape Town, the parallels to the business world stood out. Climbing Everest, more than ever, has become a literal metaphor for climbing the corporate ladder, where everyone is out their on their own and for themselves, standing on top of one another to reach the top, no matter what it takes.

Rather than this approach, Vilane’s climbed focused on community based aspects of helping others, working hard and working as team, not an individual.

In this light mountaineering stands tall as an inspirational and life changing pass-time, and if applied to business, reflects what so many management and leadership books preach about for achieving corporate greatness.

Here are some of his presentation’s key points:

1- Discover a dream you can believe in. Vilane openly states it was never his dream to climb Everest, but once it was presented to him in the context of representing black African people, none of whom had climbed Everest before, the vision was something he could connect with. It was this dream that kept him going through all of the hardships on the mountain, and stick it out when others turned around.

2- Break the dream down into small manageable objectives. Vilane had never climbed a big mountain in his life, before accepting the challenge to climb the highest mountain in the world. Looking at the climb as a whole, the task seemed impossible, even outrageous. But breaking it down into small pieces, and then focusing on finishing each objective, ultimately saw him standing on the summit.

3- Don’t take short cuts. Vilane, a game ranger by trade, decided to take a man walking through the nature reserve on his day off. This person turned out to be the British Consulate General in Swaziland, and pitched the idea of climbing Everest after spending the day with him. Sometimes going the extra mile will open unexpected opportunities.

4- Encourage one another. Today Vilane’s enterprise is called Dream Encouragers, and his by line is “Encouraging Africa to dream!” Without the support and encouragement of many people, Vilane openly notes the summit of Everest would not have been attainable. Like the Xhosa saying “Sisonke” –together we can.

5- First attempts don’t always succeed -don’t let it get you down. It took seven years from that day in the game reserve, to actually stepping on the mountain. Big dreams require patience and perseverance.

6- Be encouraged by your successes. Each step higher for Vilane was a moment to celebrate.

And finally:

7- Remember why you are there. Before the summit at the Hillary step, Vilane was struggling to continue. At this point he drew strength from his dream, to climb Everest as a Black African person. It was not about his need to summit, but rather the soul of the African continent beneath him, willing him to keep on, that saw him through to the summit.

In the end Vilane achieved what seemed to many an impossible mission, for an inexperienced climber to stand on the summit of the world. His story shows us just what greatness lies within each one of us, if only we connect with it and believe enough to dream.

For more info on Sibusiso Vilane, check out his website at www.to-the-top.co.za. Support the Amy Beihl Foundation www.amybeihl.org

Images: Everest (Reuters); and Sibusiso Vilane with Alex Harris