Introducing... Seven Summits Snacks

At the very start of the year, someone I am rather fond of asked me one of the best questions I have ever been asked: “choose one word to describe your 2020”. It took me a little while to choose wisely, but in the end, I chose the word: ambitious!

To my regular readers, you won’t be surprised at this response with the marathon (literally and figuratively) race calendar I had already described for the first half of the year: Tokyo, Boston, Everest. Subsequently due to the world crisis, Tokyo has long since been cancelled and Boston and Everest are both postponed... where it will not be possible to run both this year.

No 6-star medal this year, a dream I had excitedly thought was to be a sure thing for 2020.  However, in reference to “well, that wasn’t in the plan” and trying to build a life with certainty within it, I find myself yet again wondering what worldly life lessons I meant to be learning... I suppose it has something to do with my tendency to want to make a plan to get ahead of the game (of life) somehow. 

Anyways... What I deeply describe as my most “ambitious” task for they year is NOT the three marathons in three months, nor that the last marathon would have started at an altitude with half of the amount of available oxygen as a “normal” marathon after an 8 day/ 60km acclimatization trek in... no, I was not even phased about completing those tasks because for some reason (obviously based on past experiences), they feel like perfectly natural and safe progression patterns. 

Although these three races did form part of my initial answer to describing my ambitious year ahead, and with running not actually the most ambitious task in my mind, what warrants the description of ambitious?

Instead, moving on with life in the “normal” sense is! Which is driven mainly by me trying to carve out a successful chocolate consulting business AND launch Seven Summit Snacks. THESE are the two tasks that I find deserving of the word “ambitious”. These are the two tasks that have the most unknowns to me. These are the tasks with the biggest personal risk, causing me to stretch outside of my comfort zone. 

Living in the space of uncertainty around where your next pay check is actually coming from is terrifying to many people. Trusting that you have the ability and skills and hustle to put food on your plate and pay your rent when you don’t actually have a physical contract is the epitome of the concept of blind trust in yourself and the universe. Ambition in this sense is of the definition to have “intended to satisfy high aspirations and (is) therefore difficult to achieve”.  Okay!! I get it!!

My aspirations are high! They always have been, and when I have achieved what would have been an aspiration, I am naturally looking to what is next, bigger, better. Having the opportunity to try this (chocolate) out for myself, without the safety net of a large corporation, is a leap that not many can make when they have the security of a pension, benefits, regular pay check, etc. But for my own personal values, I knew I would be doing a disservice to myself by taking a corporate job in a location away from my family, or else a job near to my family in an industry I am not passionate about. A heartfelt door closed in my life and several exciting, new ones opened. I have chosen to walk through those doors. I’ve given myself a period of time to make it work, where I will rationally evaluate if I need to jump back on the safety bandwagon or not, but at that point I will know deep down that I tried my best. 

So what makes 2020 the year of ambition to me? Queue one of the official unveilings of Seven Summits Snacks!

I, and my two other co-founders, have started a chocolate business! 

We are official (only official businesses have websites, apparently), with a national incorporation and everything!

How are we making this happen? 

Well, somehow we just are!

We are not starting completely from scratch as many entrepreneurs who we have connected with over the past month are. I have worked in the industry at a global scale for the past 10 years (again, this seems to be more experience than most new start-ups), and Leanna has often been my muse for new product developments. My family as a whole has always had some of the first tastes of the work-in-progress (without context, of course). Our third co-founder is a new business strategist who now gets to put into effect her years of training.

In effect, Leanna came to me with the consumer problem; empathetically I thought this problem was solvable; and from there we have been ideating, prototyping, and testing steadily over the past months. Good product development is rooted in Design Thinking. 

We now have a range of products visualized and are currently working out how to make scalable, sale-able product for the summer! We will test your tastebuds and we will also take your monies- as investment cash, and by the end of this year, for product. We endeavour to build a Kickstarter platform in the next little while as we work out our supply chain. 

I won’t go into more detail than that right now as future blogs will warrant details and specifics of the how. I will however leave you with our website to peruse which introduces our story and products.

I will closeout though, with a note on grace.

For Christmas, Leanna gave me a hoodie with the word Grace and the following note:

"To the best big sister ever... I love you so much, you have been my saving grace this year. Your strength is courageous..."

I was deeply touched by her note as grace is a value I have long held on a pedestal, aspiring to have embedded within my daily life. An ambition, of sorts. And to be regarded as someone else's saving grace is a great compliment. Since then, and of course as I seem to come to many epiphanies of sorts through podcasts, I listened to a Tony Robbins podcast about the gift of Grace.

“Grace is not something you earn. It’s not a reward, or something you pray or ask for. And it has nothing to do with karma, or your past actions. You don’t deserve grace – it just falls on you.

What’s remarkable about grace is that the more you acknowledge it, the more it appears. Grace can be a guiding force when your intent is pure and your will is strong, but something else pushes you through.”

I had previously recognized that grace is about acknowledgment rather than  wanting or earning or deserving, thus resonating with the sentiment. I can honestly say that I am here today because of accepting what has befallen me over the past 15 months. Rather than list all of the negative events I have experienced, where one of these events often causes people to spiral into a depression, I choose to acknowledge where I am today because of these events. I choose to be grateful that I am healthy, happy, and alive. With that, I welcome what challenges are still yet to come, and whichever life lessons I have yet to learn.

In this time of global difficulty, I invite you to invite grace into your life; to be grateful you are where you are when you are, and to be creative and open to the doors that are opening in front of you. If you look, you will see them. Be brave and use this opportunity in front of you.

100 days later and my two cents on the new rules

Shortly after Robin and I started our relationship, he presented me with a card. It was the end of May, and there was no traditional holiday in our newly combined schedule that warranted a card or commemoration. I remember feeling touched by the notion of receiving an unprompted gesture and grateful to have such a thoughtful person in my life. This card was a note to thank me for our first 100 days together.

The concept of 100 days was born to me at that point. Kind of like the adages “you can’t unlearn what you’ve learned” or “unsee what you have seen”; now forever aware, 100 day milestones are locked in my brain... along with many other notions Robin brought to me. 

Today has been 100 days from when Robin took his last breath and I still feel all the feelings associated with loss. Even though I completely understand Robin is eternalised as the highest man on earth (until an almighty blast of weather brings him wings or another person summits), every now and again I get smacked in the face with the reality that he is not returning. 

There were two topics I wanted to touch on today, and I guess they are both about coping in their own way. Firstly, as there is continuously news about the number of deaths that occurred in the last season on Everest and subsequently new rules the Nepalese government has proposed, I’m going to give you my two cents on the matter. Secondly, I want to share my thoughts on “meaning”. Perhaps these two topics warrant their own individual entries, but I recognise that both are timely and emotional to me, thus cathartic to write about, and a good way to share how I am coping 100 days later. 

Topic One: The Everest Rule Changes
Maybe not the healthiest of habits for me, but I’m still subscribed to Everest alerts on all sorts of media outlets. Regularly new articles are released as the Spring 2019 season fades away and a hint of a possible Autumn 2019 season surfaces. Many of the articles cite the death count this year, and every time I read the attribution line “inexperienced climbers or guides” as blanket blame for the deaths, I become admittedly angry (reverting to step two of dealing with grief). I’m angry because Robin wouldn’t have wanted his name associated with notions of carelessness or incompetence as I take the term inexperienced to be directed. Queue counter argument from my internal voice saying “but that’s just the meaning you take from such statements, Kristyn”. 

Inexperienced is a spectrum term in this case, and I say so in relation the the new rules the Nepalese government released for upcoming seasons. Enforceability of these rules still remains a hot topic for discussion; however, the key points (which make me angry) are: 

a. Climbers must prove they have summited a Nepalese peak higher than 6500m prior to their Everest bid.

b. Only Nepalese citizens will be able to be leaders and guides

c. Tourism companies are required to have at least three years’ experience organizing high-altitude expeditions

d. The base ticket price will be $35,000

e. Health Certificates must be provided before issuing permits

Apart from Robin's qualifying summit of Aconcagua not being a Nepalese peak  of >6500m, these rule changes wouldn’t have prevented Robin from dying. If Everest Summit Certificates can be forged by the body that will regulate this rule, then anyone would be able to produce a proving piece of paper. Robin was with a Sherpa who had summited Everest 19 times already and the tour company Robin went with asked for a health note from a doctor as a part of the signing-up package. These rules will also not dramatically reduce the number of permits issued as I expect a large number of aspiring expedition goers can probably scrape together the extra cash for the permit; either because of their affluence or their pure determination to make their dreams come true. Then what would have prevented Robin’s death? Or that of the other 10 casualties? Who really knows as my experience in finding out the particulars is shrouded in as much mystery as the contents of Pandora’s Box.  Would these rules have prevented the others from dying? I also don’t have the answer to that as I haven’t done the in-depth research. 

The Nepalese government has full reason to raise an inquiry into how to decrease the risk of death on Everest as it is in their interest to decrease the number of negative P.R. stories. The government also should lead changes to improve safety and accountability. I don’t believe the proposals are enough from a safety perspective. To my knowledge, there is no real accountability for people (and I mean this in the sense of humanity) once you sign your life away on the wavier provided to you by your expedition company. 

A question I’d start with if I was the government is: what measures must be in place to de-risk the chance of death during expedition when the fully experienced, faux-ly experienced, or that one unlucky somewhat experienced person runs into trouble? I’ve got thoughts on the matter, and invite you to share yours with me, to make the whole Everest experience a better place for the expedition members, and subsequently family and friends of climbers involved. 

…

Topic two: Meaning

As mentioned, what makes me angry about the news reports is the meaning I assert to lines such as: 

“criticized for not stopping inexperienced climbers who had difficulty coping with harsh conditions on Everest and slowed down other climbers”

“Nepalese commission found that the Everest deaths were primarily caused by the inexperience of the climbers and crowding near the 29,035 ft (8,850 m) summit.”

Alternatively the term inexperienced in these statements could be interpreted to mean that climbers just haven’t clocked enough climbing time (or experience) to understand how their body fully works (or doesn’t in this case) at altitude.

Ultimately a concept I am well familiar with and which has been a game changer in my outlook on life, thereby ability to cope with hardship, is that “life is empty and meaningless” (where meaningless does NOT mean pointless) and the meaning is what you choose. Furthermore, I support this concept or belief structure with the belief that “where focus goes, energy flows” meaning 🤪 that if you choose to focus, or take meaning, in negative ways, negative energy fills you. 

Contrarily, I choose to spend my thoughts assuming positive intent, meaning, etc to invite positive mind states and eventually positive manifestations within my life. By the way... I’d like to state that these are not (my) original ideas and I fully credit my experiences with The Landmark Forum and Tony Robbins (more gifts from my time with Robin) to equipping me to cope in the way that I am. 

So how am I coping theses 100 days later? 

Cognizantly

Rationally

Potentially irrationally

At times, emotionally. 

A long time acquaintance of mine said to me that I have an interesting way of “dealing with life” that seems to work for me. I put everything in a cupboard and pull out what I need at the time I am ready to address it. Sometimes I put things back, shunning them because I’m not ready. Other times I take them out, and fully process and let go. This is definitely a fair reflection of my time over the past 5 years of my life, and especially so in the past three months, or 100 days.

I mentioned that I am still at times surprised by the idea that Robin will never return, and I choose the word idea because that’s another coping strategy that I, and others (refer to the writer Elizabeth Gilbert as a way to gain credibility to this notion), use to process grief. We choose to sign-up to the belief that those we love are omnipresent and are recognised in our thoughts, in our earworms, and in the change of wind we feel in those quiet moments. 

The word “idea” meaning suggestion or possibility that one’s life is not defined entirely by their presence within their body, meaning (to me) that one’s presence may be felt, or acknowledged without a traditionally physical presence. Perhaps this is still me cycling from anger to denial, but what does it really matter if this idea brings me comfort and helps me get through the day? I CAN honestly say that in searching for answers, assigning meaning, or inviting signs to feel that Robin is with me, I am not straying far from what might be deemed “traditional daily effectiveness” on the surface and get $#!t done. Hey, I did still BQ!

I will also say that I am still trying to find answers, and interpret and assign meaning to the events leading up to Robin’s death as a way of coping and finding closure. However, through the support of my sisters and my rational mind, I do continue to question my intentions and to check that they are globally positive, allowing me to invite the positivity I need at an innate level to fuel my life’s path. 

With that, I’ll leave you with a mini mantra: 

“Where focus goes, energy flows” 

and let you choose where to place your energies. 

We could all do with a lot more positivity in our lives- that’s a fact!