March 2008 I made my decision to join an international team to climb an 8000m mountain. There are only 14 mountains in the world over 8000m and all of them are in the Himalayas. There is no such thing as a safe and easy 8000m mountain, but Cho Oyu in Tibet, the 6th highest, is probably the best one to start with. Arriving in Kathmandu, Nepal the 31st August 2008, I met my team of 9. Overcoming a lot of protocol, we finally got to the mountain a week later and began our long acclimatization process. After weeks of moving up and down the mountain to increase our red-blood count, we got our narrow weather ‘window of opportunity’ to make our summit bid. Leaving high camp (25,000’) at 11:30pm and climbing all night up steep rock and icy terrain, we reached the summit of Cho Oyu (8201m) at 6am October 5th. Thirty kilometers distant stood Mount Everest and Lhotse, below us like huge anthills, stood all the other towering mountains of the Himalayas, and still further beyond you could see the great plateau of Tibet. Hard training, determination, believing in yourself, and daring was the simple key to our success.

My last climb was completely unexpected. January 5th, 2009 an email arrived inviting me to replace another climber on an expedition to climb Vinson in Antarctica. I had only 36 hours to be on a plane for southern Chile. Having dreamed for years of going to the Arctic and Antarctic, I could not begin to resist. Antarctica is a continent of incredible extremes: of beauty, of survival, of challenge. In frigid temperatures, 24 hour daylight, absolutely phenomenal vistas, we were able to stand on the summit of the coldest, most windswept continent on Earth. It was truly a trip of a lifetime.

With so many avenues in life to follow, there is naturally no right or wrong one. Every direction produces interesting results. My road has been to search out challenges, to push beyond the horizon, to DARE, to REACH, to DISCOVER.