The Ascent to Attempting Everest

For the presentation I gave at work last week I had the opportunity to finally put down on paper in graphics some of the ways I think about things. I am generally a visual person, which is to say, when I do multiplication in my head sometimes I see circles arranged in rectangles, or I describe a problem in a flow chart of causes and effects that has led us here. So I made this visual to describe how in 2003 I was getting more serious about spending time in the mountains and through a series of events, I got to the point where I was ready to go.

It's not important what each box says. One of the things I wanted to show was that while progress is linear when we plan something, it rarely works out so smoothly. I did not expect 2010 to be what it was for me. Another thing I wanted to show was that each box represents a big step, a new skill that I learned before I would feel comfortable attempting the highest mountain in the world. I like to imagine that if I died on the side of a mountain, inexperience would not be listed as a contributing factor. I don't want to be that guy they write books about and point fingers at as an example of what not to do.

The Non-Linear Ascent to Attempting Mt. Everest

The point of this is, there is so much work just to getting there, healthy, fit and skilled that maybe 80%-90% of the work has already been done. Mentally, I've already climbed the mountain.