argentina - legacy - culture

morning chums,

i’m writing this weeks (short)  blog surrounded by mountaineering equipment, getting my kit ready for my flight tonight from heathrow to mendoza in argentina, stopping off in sao paolo in brazil, which should take about 20 hours, so lots of podcasts and books to listen to and read, which is a fun part of the experience for me.

another fun part is chocolate and alcohol.

i always give myself a self imposed ban on both of these things for three months prior to leaving, just to show myself how mentally strong i am, which i’ve managed, but i might never do another expedition that includes the christmas period again, man that was tough.

but the rules of the jungle are, once i enter the airport the ban is off, but i need to be careful, the last time this happened i literally nearly barfed, after consuming approximately 11 assorted bars of chocolate, i kid you not, i was an animal, and nearly went into a sugar coma, and was also nearly arrested after growling at a child who looked at the 5th twirl i was proceeding to dyson up.

so, this time i will take things easy, and hopefully not enter the arrestable zone.

once i get to argentina, i will meet up with our acomara team, none of whom i have met, which again is part of the thrill of pushing myself, these people will become my short term family, who i will have to trust at nearly 7000m with my life, pretty intense stuff, especially as i haven’t climbed with anyone apart from himalayan experience since 2012, so it’s going to be a very new type of expedition, but i can’t wait to push myself.

the expedition is three weeks long, so i may not be able to blog while i’m away, but if i do it will be very mountain influenced, hopefully i can.

* fun fact, malbec wine is made in mendoza, where i will start and finish my climb, so i am looking into doing a vineyard trip if i can fit it in, and might do a bigmoose blog ‘malbec giveaway’ when i get back, which actually reminds me, when i last did everest, i told people i would send them postcards from there, which i did, and they seemed to love it, so if anybody reading this wants an aconcagua postcard, just send me your name and address, and it’ll be a pleasure, though it’s not quite everest 😂

tania just opened my office door and uttered the words “here’s your ice axe” as she nonchalantly threw it on my bag, i love the randomness of my life, and my wife.

away from mountains, chloe has been away doing a speaking gig in dusselldorf, which she was very pleased with the result and feedback she received, which is brilliant because it was a two hour talk, which is super long, so congratulations mate, i know this was a nerve wracking challenge, but pushed your circle wider than it was pre trip, it’s great to push ourselves right?

from a charity perspective we have lots going on this week, and i have been deep in conversations with lawyers, which is not a glamorous part of the job, but a very necessary part as we grow, we need to be strong, especially at this point, which feels like our foundation stage, ready to build a great charity, that will hopefully last long into the future, doing life saving work.

so, as we grow, the responsibilities for me in this role grow too, but i feel ready for this next stage of my life steering this ship, and i view my opportunity to help so many people as a privilege, and welcome the role, and vow to do my very best, as i feel this kind of opportunity doesn’t come along often, and as legacy for moose it is huge.

wow, we went from sugar comas to legacy in a few short paragraphs, that’s probably pre mountain nerves kicking in, nothing like a high altitude expedition to clear the mind of the small stuff, which reminds me of a recent video from my mentor darren hardy, where he talks about people being busy, and concludes that successful people don’t get it all done, they just get the right things done, which i love, as it removes that pressure of getting that to do list completely clear, which is nigh on impossible, and even if achievable, only very temporary, so let’s follow darren’s lead and just try to get the right things done.

the other thing he discussed this week was around learning to say no to things you don’t really want to do, which i am learning to become better at, and am proud of one such instance this week where a new acquaintance invited me to speak at his conference, and told me that i would speak about how current government systems were broken, and how we should fix them, very inflammatory narrative, which i didn’t feel comfortable with, so concluded i needed to say no, which i’m sure a while back i would have not wanted to offend the conference organiser and agreed to, go me!

finally to wrap up this pre aconcagua, full of nerves blog, i went out for my last hard training session last week, and listened to a number of podcasts, and took some notes, which i want to share with you, i won’t expand on them, but will leave you to ponder them in your own way.

if you can perceive it, you can achieve it.

life plus your reaction is your outcome, the outcome is controlled by you.

memento mori.

a leader is a dealer in hope.

biomimicry.

it takes a team to build a business, but it takes a culture to build a team.

love is a superpower not a soft skill.

have a great week, and hopefully i'll get another blog out next week.

blue skies,

jeff