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Continued from previous page
Each night our trek physician runs a standup clinic
for aches and pains. Sore muscles are few, for we have all
conditioned hard before the trek. Several hired professional
trainers, and one even spent hours on a treadmill
with climbing boots and loaded backpack. Sore or not, we
are all tired from the day's trek, and most of us will be fast
asleep by 9 p.m. Save the occasional roar of an avalanche
off a nearby peak, the only sound is the tinkling of bells
from pack yaks.
SODA AND PRAYER WHEELS
The warden of Sagarmatha National Park, Nyima Wangchu
Sherpa, joins us for dinner in Namche Bazaar, the crossroads
of the region. His park encompasses Mount Everest
and its environs, and he notes the rapid growth of foreign
visitors, from 4,000 in 1982 to 17,000 last year. The abbot
of Khumbu’s best known monastery at Tengboche, however,
is unfazed by the rising tide. When we ask if his
monks are sometimes distracted by the backpacker wealth
passing their prayer wheels, he responds that if so, they do
not understand Buddhism.
Start-up possibilities in our desolate terrain are not so
evident to the unaided eye, but through the prisms of
newly minted MBA graduates, we can see that they
abound. What better way to promote a local soda than to
name it after the roaring glacier-fed river along which
we’ve been walking for days, the Imja Khola. Another possibility:
Spinning a Buddhist prayer wheel clockwise says
a silent mantra — Om Mani Padme Hum, hail to the jewel
in the lotus — and we have seen stream-spun wheels along
our trail. For the many prayer wheels without stream
power, however, why not introduce high-tech solar cells to
spin them, generating blessings throughout the region?
A third possibility: Few of the region’s peaks are presently
named. Adjacent to Mount Everest, for instance, are
peaks 7708, 7804, and 7143, identified only by their height
in meters. Surely we can raise millions of rupees for Khumbu
Sherpas by offering to name the mountains after
particularly generous donors. But we learn that among
Sherpas, summits are reserved for deities, and gracing peaks
with the names of mere mortals would demean them.
Even Mount Everest, honoring the British surveyor, Sir
George Everest, is known by the Sherpas as Chomolungma
or Jomolangma, the name of a Tibetan goddess of long
life and prosperity. We are reminded of the pitfalls of selling
across cultures we do not yet fully understand.
LEADERSHIP LESSONS
Leadership involves developing a vision, articulating a
direction, and inspiring others to achieve it. We have
designed the trek to explore how mountain metaphors,
Eastern as well as Western, can be used to build both personal
and team leadership. As our discussions and
experiences intensify in the rarefied atmosphere and stunning
scenery, enduring lessons emerge.
Build your leadership: Arlene Blum organized an expedition
of premier women climbers to climb Annapurna in
1978, but she found her decisions on the slopes frequently
questioned by her team members. A formal position
invests you with little real authority, we conclude. You
must earn the confidence of those you expect to lead, and
it is best acquired well before you’re on the mountainside.
Explaining your purpose, demonstrating your capacities,
and obtaining buy-in are among the steps required, and
our two daily leaders seek to display all when initiating
their agenda for the trail.
Challenge your leaders: We meet one of the lucky survivors
of the May 10, 1996 disaster on Mount Everest,
Sandy Hill. She reports that one of her great regrets was not
having questioned the condition of her climbing leader,
Scott Fischer, whose impaired health stranded him on
the summit ridge when the violent storm hit. Although
members of his expedition had reached the summit, he
insisted on continuing up — and he never returned.
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