Our Story, our values and our ethos

Highlands in your heart…

 

The rain lashed at my face, the wind whipped at my clothing, water cascaded around my feet. 

I looked up through squinted eyes, rain glancing off my cheeks.

 

They were so high. 

So massive. 

So rocky.

So…..mountain. 

They drew me in. I wanted to climb them. I wanted to touch their elusive, wind swept summits.

 

I shut my eyes tightly and tried to imagine what it was like at the top. 

How could anyone survive up there? How could anyone climb up there in these conditions? I felt a tinge of fear.

 

My thoughts were abruptly halted as a voice flitted through the mist and rain…

 

“Come on, get a move on, we’re nearly there” 

 

I turned and looked at the steamed up car windows; mum just visible through the glass, beckoning me back. The back passenger door still open, rain pouring in.

 

I took a final glance up at the peaks all around me. We don’t get stuff like this in Southampton I thought as I zipped up my fly and ran, soaked to the skin, back to the car.

 

Dad slipped the Austin Allegro into gear and we pulled back out onto the road, my face pressed up against the cold glass, staring out towards the impenetrable ramparts. 

I knew then that something had been awakened within my heart. 

 

It was 1978, I was tiny and this was my first foray into the Highlands.

 

The road was the A82.

The layby was the one at Grid Reference 170568; the mountain rescue helipad in Glen Coe.

The peaks I was mesmerised by were Stob Coire nan Lochan, Beinn Fhada, Gearr Aonach and Aonach Dubh; The later three being the Three Sisters of Glen Coe.

 

Little did I know that eighteen years later myself and my good friend Julian would narrowly escape being buried by an avalanche whilst descending from Stob Coire nan Lochan; the exact point, in Broad Gully, clearly visible as I stood there on that most poignant of days.

 

To this day, forty years on, the same feeling stirs within me when I travel through the pass of Glen Coe. 

 

From then until now.

 

Since that fateful day in 1978 challenge, adventure, mountains and wild places have been my at the core of my life.

 

A bit more about The Founder of Peak Challenge.

Stuart Rose – Leadership, team working and adventure specialist

 

For the past eighteen years Stuart has been creating, repairing and sustaining high performing teams by allowing team members to understand themselves, their ways of working, their interactions with others and their role within their team.

Coupled with a great understanding of people, what makes them tick and how people and teams react when under pressure then Stuart is perfectly suited to working with any team no matter which function they perform or goal they have.

 

He also possess a true love of the mountain environment. Most notably their winter environment.

 

Background

 

Stuart graduated from the University of Leeds (Geological Sciences) in 1994 before going on to work offshore in the North Sea where he gained huge insights into the corporate structures and pressures within a large multinational orgainisations.

In between stints offshore Stuart organised and led numerous expeditions with young people to many remote and challenging regions on earth. (Six times to the Himalayas, seeking out new routes, twice to the jungles of Belize, five times to arctic Norway and many times to the Alps.)

Stuart’s first major expedition was a new line on the north face of Kussum Kanguru in the Khumbu with fellow Leeds graduates, and life long friends, Chris Lockyer and Kenton Cool. We reached the central summit of the peak in five days, before abseiling the route on single ice screws and threads over two long days.

 

These expeditions, coupled with an understanding of the need for effective team working, communication and team collaboration in the very harsh conditions of the North Sea environment, led Stuart to set up his first venture, More Adventures in the year 2000. For two years Stuart delivered winter mountaineering courses, summer climbing sessions and expedition training programmes before the business morphed to become a more formal team and leadership consultancy using the outdoor environment as the classroom.

Stuart spends much of his time winter mountaineering, rock climbing and fell running.

 

Hampshire Scout Expeditions – a powerful force throughout my life

 

When Stuart completed his Chief Scout Award at the age of 14 he was invited to go for selection in a sub-division of the Scouting movement, Hampshire Scout Expeditions, or HSX as it is commonly known.

 

Fore more information take a peak at https://hsx.org.uk/

 

Stuart joined HSX at the age of 14 and now 30 years later is still an active member of the team, such that this February he’ll be running the annual Winter Mountaineering week in the Cairngorms for 25 young people who have their sights set on a future full of expeditions and adventure.

 

In 2007 our HSX expedition got the only scouts in history to the summit of Everest, with David King becoming the youngest Everest Summiteer ever.

Peter Duncan, the Chief Scout at the time, came on the exped and filmed this video… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lsElO-omDI4

 

Another HSX member,  Rhys Jones, summited later that season at the age of  20 to become the youngest person to complete the seven summits.

I should also add that our Everest team summited under their own guidance and didn’t employ the services of western guides as most teams do. A true testament to the skills they have learnt through their time in HSX.

Moving forwards to the present day HSX have led the first and only Scout expedition to Antarctica with the team man hauling sledges to reach the South Pole. 

 

https://www.hsxantarctica.org.uk/

 

They reached the Pole on the 7th Jan 2019 https://www.hsxantarctica.org.uk/blog/south-pole

 

So with all this in mind…we’d like to think that we have a pretty good background of working with groups, people and teams like yourselves to allow you to achieve and exceed your Peak.