FEATURED JANUARY 2009 GUEST: Peter Athans, Explorer/Mountaineer/Filmmaker

“Watch your thoughts, for they become words. Choose your words, for they become actions. Understand your actions, for they become habits. Study your habits, for they will become your character. Develop your character, for it becomes your destiny.” – The Essence of Destiny: author unknown

Peter Athans: Explorer/Mountaineer/Filmmaker

A interview with Peter Athans on leadership, setting and achieving goals, and the rewards of philanthropy.

Q: What are some of the most important characteristics of a good expedition leader?

A: I think the most important qualities are patience, humility, a great sense of humor, and the ability to assess risk and team strengths. Knowing one’s personal limitations and taking the time to admit ones’s fatigue and need for rest are also critical parts of good leadership. Excellent communication skills and the ability to make a community of the base camp with one’s western and Sherpa team are essential. It is a multifaceted job description and goes well beyond the skills required to climb rock, snow and ice.

Q: What is the greatest internal challenge a mountaineer might face during an expedition?

A: The waiting for the best conditions; the tedium of certain tasks; balancing commercial interests and safety; keeping it fun.

Q: What is the most valuable lesson you have learned in the mountains and how have you integrated that lesson into successfully managing your daily life?

A: Realizing that excellent teamwork and patience are probably the solutions to many, if not most of climbing and life’s biggest challenges. In my daily life, my wife and I are a team for raising our family, working and facing all of life’s obstacles. At work with The North Face, we have a team approach to our expeditions, to our marketing program and our product design process. Creating effective teams, implementing them and delegating authority and then finally have the patience to let them run and develop the team’s flow are next.

Q: In your experience, what do you believe is the most effective tool, internal and external, when setting and achieving any goal?

A: I have probably answered it above, but inexhaustible patience coupled with persistence and utmost clarity of vision when goal setting seem the most elemental to success.

Q: People climb mountains for all kinds of personal reasons. What first motivated you to climb Mount Everest, and did your own personal reasons evolve as you became more familiar with the mountain?

A: At first blush I found my identity as an alpinist and preferred more difficult, technically challenging objectives, and then quite naturally wanted to take the skills I had painstakingly learned to the highest and most remote mountains on Earth: the Himalaya. Simultaneously, I have also found a sense of liberation and transcendence in the world’s high places and was inspired by the Buddhist traditions existing in Everest’s foothills to explore my relationship with the natural world as it relates to the concept of sacred sanctuary.

I view mountaineering as having the capacity to become a pilgrimage and the expeditionary experience has the potential to be more expansive than the simple overcoming of technical obstacles in what we call real phenomena, real rock, snow or ice. I also became fascinated with the pre-Buddhist traditions of the region, the practice of Bon, which, according to some scholars has been in existence for more than eighteen thousand years. Climbing has become, for me, a tool for enlightment and transcendence and I hope to be able to continue climbing for quite some time.

Q: If there are any questionable reasons to climb Mount Everest, or any mountain for that matter, that may not best serve a climber when the going gets tough, what might they be?

A: I think climbing Everest for any competitive reason or as an answer to financial deficiency are bound to be met with dissapointment. More than 4000 people have climbed Everest now and the rewards for climbing it are the process alone.

Q: What advice can you pass on to someone who might be struggling with a personal and professional goal?

A: Atomize the challenge or obstacle down to it’s most essential elements. Strategize an action plan to address those elements either individually or get assistance from people who you respect and admire who have a history of overcoming obstacles both overwhelming and small. Rigorously evaluate your progress and maintain flexibility in your approach. Work intensely while simultaneously having the patience for a long horizon. Every day, take time away from your goals for refreshment and fun, plus physical activity to replenish the spirit.

Q: Do you have a personal “mantra” or code of conduct you rely on when handling a difficult situation or people who are having a challenging time managing their own attitude on a climb?

A: I think those are two questions. Difficult situations require much of what I have mentioned in the questions above; people who have an attitude issue can be a different challenge because inspiring, motivating and changing people’s minds largely relies on them. Motivating them by telling them their survival depends on their remaining focused, calm and perceptive helps! Reminding people that safety is dependent on maintaining an expansive perspicacity while being utterly frank about one’s personal condition is another important factor for those climbing Everest.

Q: You have been involved in several projects that support the lives and health of the Sherpa people of Nepal. What are those projects and how can someone get involved to help?

A: Thank you for asking! Firstly, the Himalayan Cataract Project that provides sight restoring surgery to indigent Nepalese suffering from Cataract blindness is one of my favorite and well documented organizations. They can be researched at www.cureblindness.org

The Magic Yeti Libraries which provide illustrated texts and inspire literacy in young children is a program our family and friends started a few years back that most people can assist with the donation of either funds or books. The Khumbu Climbing School that fosters professionalism in mountain guiding for Sherpas is another of my favorite projects. People can leran more about the Magic Yeti Libraries and the Khumbu Climbing School at www.alexlowe.org

Light of the Himalaya from Michael Brown: Serac Adventure Films The North Face athlete team joins eye surgeons from Nepal and America in hopes of making a difference.

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About Peter Athans:

In 2002 Peter climbed Mount Everest for a record breaking seventh time and he hasn’t stopped climbing since. With more than 40 Himalayan expeditions to his credit, he is one of the most experienced mountaineers active in the world today.

While climbing inspires his passion, he has also enabled the Himalayan Cataract Project to provide sight restoring surgery to the indigent Nepalese suffering from cataract blindness. Further, he co-founded with family and friends the Magic Yeti Libraries, inspiring literacy in pre-school age children in several under-developed Himalayan localities.

Additionally, he is a board member with the Khumbu Climbing School that instills professional guiding and medical training in Sherpa guides. Finally, he’s explored ancient Buddhist caves in Mustang, revealing to the world their archaeological richness. With cave entrances hundreds of feet above the ground, technical rope access is essential.

In 2006 Pete’s team discovered a 30 foot long Mural created during the 13th century amongst other significant antiquities, ancient documents and human remains. The results of his team’s ground breaking discoveries will be featured on PBS, National Geographic, and France 5 in 2009.

David A. Sowles Award: Granted by The American Alpine Club, this award is given to climbers who distinguish themselves by accepting great personal risk and sacrificing their own objectives to assist fellow climbers who are in distress. In 1996, Peter exhibited great compassion and selflessness in the rescue of Beck Weathers and Makalu Gau during one of Mount Everest’s most lethal climbing seasons.

Awarded the Dupont Columbia Golden Baton for Excellence in Journalism and Film (with the crew from NOVA) 1997

Awarded The Explorers Club Tenzing Norgay Award, 2005

Awarded Horace Mann School/Columbia Alumni prize for Philanthropic work

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To learn more about our other guests on the Mt. Everest Mind Camp please visit:

www.mteverestmindcamp.com