Next year, four intrepid South African women will attempt

to summit Mt Everest – the first all-women team from Africa

to do so. Lisa Gering, Alda Waddell, Deshun Deysel and

Tumi Mphahlele are all from Johannesburg and are working

with Ronnie Muhl of Cape Town-based Adventures Global,

who will manage the logistics of the climb. 

Preparation for the expedition involves a climb up

Mont Blanc (4,810m)  in the  Alps in Switzerland in

September this year and Mount  Aconcagua (6,959m)

in Argentina on the Chilean border in December, as

well as intensive individual training by each of the

team members.

How important is the all-women aspect of this expedition

philosophically, physically, and in marketing terms?

Deshun Deysel: It’s significant for South Africa. High

altitude climbing is still relatively new here. It only

started about 25 years ago and only really kicked off

with that first Everest expedition I was a part of [the

controversial Ian Woodall-led climb in 1996]. When I

started, the ratio of women to men was about 1:67. By

my second Everest climb, that had already come down

to 1:23 or so.

I was often just a team member then. Now women’s

climbing is interesting to people. There is a developing

pool of capable female mountaineers, but we’ve never

had a full team before. It speaks of the advances in high-

altitude climbing since we started that we now have an

experienced team of female climbers.

When I began, there was no information on climbing

Everest – just one or two books. Now it’s different: when

I give talks, six or 10 people in the room have already

climbed Kilimanjaro!

How important is the teamwork aspect?

Initially, we were just a group of strangers with different

strengths. I’d been talking to Ronnie for many years

about going back to Everest. And he’s been working

with Lisa for a long time.

Alda has been chatting to me for ages. I was in a

place where my kids were small and I wasn’t ready to

commit again. Then I met with her and became excited

again – and then we were two. At which point Ronnie

suggested Lisa. Three was still not quite enough, but

we didn’t want to make the group too big, as it costs

about R1,5 million each for the whole expedition and

finding sponsors is really difficult.

The three of us went to an event in Centurion – the

first gathering of female mountaineers in South Africa

• and there were many women there who had been
  above 8,000m. Many of them came to meet us; we had
  to make a selection. Tumi was so driven, and she had
  some good expeditions under her belt.
  There’s a lovely balance. We’re all in the
  entrepreneurship space, and for climbers, that’s a
  good analogy. You start a business from scratch, there
  is no straight line, and you often have to return to
  base camp. We understand the struggles. Lisa trains
  entrepreneurs, Tumi has two businesses and Alda is
  an independent consultant. We all understand the
  challenges for women in the marketplace.

How much training is necessary – the climb is only next

year, but what do you need to do on a daily basis to

prepare?

I’m working on base fitness: cycling, running,

swimming and so on. None of us can tell the other

what to do – we need to understand our own fitness

and what is best for our personal conditioning.

You need strength – mental and physical – more than

you do fitness, though. You have to have the ability,

while wearing a heavy pack, to hold on while hanging

from an ice pick!

The climbs we’re doing in preparation are also so

important. Mont Blanc is a relatively accessible way of

doing technical ice climbing training without the risk

of being at very high altitude. You learn stuff you have

to know, about crossing crevasses and climbing ice

walls. It’s a vital step.

Aconcagua, in the Andes, is the highest peak outside

of the Himalayas and so is great for high altitude

training, while not being a terribly technical climb.

Everest is being climbed so much more often than it

used to be. Do you think it’s easier now, with advanced

technology and better gear?

Gear makes a huge difference now. When I started,

my boots weighed 2.5kg each, and that’s now down to

800g or so. Carbon fibre has replaced metal in packs

and other areas, so you’re already carrying five or six

kilograms less to start with.

For more information about

Deshun Deysel’s business

training work, go to

peakperformancetoolkit.biz.

performance

Deshun Deysel heads back to Everest as part of

South Africa’s first all-women team

Pea k

50

travel leisure | lifestyle

ADVENTURE