Kenton Cool is one of the world’s leading high-altitude climbers. He has summited Everest 17 times, mostly as a guide, and became the first person in history to complete the ‘Everest Triple Crown’ — Everest (8,848m), Nuptse (7,861m) and Lhotse (8,516m) — in a single climb. Here he talks exclusively to The Journey about the lessons learnt from Everest, and why being outdoors is a critical part of everyone’s life.
You’ve climbed Everest 17 times. Describe your perspective on the world when you’re stood at the top.
My first time at the summit, way back in 2004, was a moment of clarity. I remember getting to the top, having a look around and being blown away by everything that was beneath me. I remember looking down at a particular mountain and thinking it looked like a really interesting one to climb. It dawned on me that it was Ama Dablam, which I had previously climbed, and thought at the time was my introduction to high-altitude climbing, at around 6,800 metres. Now I was two vertical kilometres above it, which all of a sudden made me feel incredibly insignificant. Ama Dablam was almost a dot among so many other peaks. Then there was that crushing feeling of insignificance and it felt as though you could see forever. Looking around at the Tibetan plateau and it all coming together, it was overwhelming.
What can climbing Everest still teach us?
The amazing thing with Everest is that it’s projected itself beyond the physicality of the mountain. How often do we hear the term ‘What’s your Everest?’? That’s bigger than the mountain, and that’s pretty unique. People don’t ask, ‘What’s your mountain bike run?’ as a metaphor. When you start looking at the history of Everest, it can also teach us a whole host of things. Specifically, the collaboration which occurred in 1952 when a Swiss team went there and very nearly climbed in.
And then in a show of humility, or perhaps just showing us what the climbing world is like, John Hunt [expedition leader of the successful 1953 summit] shared all the information they had learnt. John Hunt alludes to the fact, that sharing of information was significant in the success the British team had in 1953. That’s 70 years ago, and we still share information; we’re very open with our communication because we have to be. From the perspective of an individual, people have to go above and beyond to achieve their dream.
What do you see as the benefits for the outdoors?
The outdoors teaches us everything. I read recently that even academic learning is enhanced when it’s taught outdoors. That says a lot about the power the outdoors has. It allows us to open our minds and be more receptive to a myriad of things. I took a group of young people from London to North Wales. It was the first time that they’d been out of London and they were blown away by it. We were only there for 48 hours, but by the end of it you could see they had experienced something totally new to them and that had given them a sense of achievement. They had to work together, they had to take charge of the navigation, cooking the meals. There was teamwork in there, they had to assign a leader for each leg. At the same time, there’s that sense of humility. You’re in a big, wide-open space, and maybe Eryri (Snowdonia) isn’t the Himalayas, but it can be just as grounding, just as overwhelming.
The outdoors can teach us pretty much every tool we need to go into the big wide world, be it from a business perspective, a professional perspective, a personal perspective. It teaches us to interact with each other when things are going well and when they’re not. It teaches us to be organised and on point when it comes to navigation or packing a rucksack. A lot of the time it also gives us a heightened sense of awareness.
The outdoors is critical. Not just important — it’s critical.
Photo Credit: Elia Saikaly, Martin Jernberg.
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