TEAM MOUNT EVEREST - Key Persons
Interestingly, John's family's association with Everest pre-dates his own life by several generations. In the nineteenth century, one of his ancestors, TH Lewin - whom the Lushai tribe with whom he lives affectionately lived christened Thangliena - named their daughters Everest after their close friend Mr George Everest, the Surveyor General of India, who was credited with "discovering" Mount Everest, or Peak 15 as he called it at the time, for the purposes of his Himalayan survey.
Coincidentally, a few generations later, one of John's distant cousins, Edmund Hilary, was credited with becoming the first person, together with Sherpa Tenzing Norgay, to summit Everest - though John believes that Everest was climbed nearly 30 years earlier than Sir Edmund's expedition, by Mallory and Irvine, and that on their descent from the summit, Mallory fell first in the darkness, while Irvine continued on alone, getting lost in the mist and darkness, close to the northeast shoulder.
John has been running expeditions almost continuously for more than 20 years and has been responsible for overseeing more than 10,000 trekkers on around 3,000 seprate expeditions to high altitude. He is reputed as one of the foremost authorities in the world on acclimatisation, high-altitude safety and route selection, having consulted to national parks' authorities in these fields.
Rebecca's first trip to Everest with John in 2002 was her first ever mountainous expedition. She went on three years later to become the first lady to speed climb Kilimanjaro, the world's largest freestanding mountain, and held this record for some 4 years before it was broken.
Rebecca is a superb organiser and brings an almost autistic attention to detail to the team. She loves bringing order and precision to every environment in which she is called to operate, and is central to the operation's ability to surpass expectation and deliver a superb product.