Life After Everest Is a Breeze

Jeff Dossett didn’t climb his first mountain until he was 40. Eight years later, he’s climbed the tallest peak on every continent and has used his adventures to raise awareness for the fight against HIV/AIDS.

By Jennifer Warnick September 25, 2008

Jeff Dossett, Melissa Arnot, and Dave Morton make up Everest Team
INSPI(RED), which climbed Mount Everest earlier this year to raise awareness for and help fight against HIV/AIDS.

Summiting the tallest mountain on Earth, where in some places there are “literally 1,000 places to die,” gives a certain sense of perspective. Jeff Dossett returned from Mount Everest with this sense of perspective—the kind that makes him chuckle when people complain that something is difficult or impossible. “I have a different set point in my brain,” Dossett said. Climbing Everest “forever affects the way you think about challenges and obstacles in your normal life.”

Dossett, MSN executive producer and general manager, has climbed Everest twice. The first time was in 2004, and the second was earlier this year as part of TEAM INSPI(RED). He and two other climbers climbed the mountain specifically to raise awareness for PRODUCT (RED) and change the lives of people living with HIV/AIDS in Africa.

The TEAM INSPI(RED) climb was a highly interactive one, with Dossett and his team blogging and posting videos and photos along the way using a Windows-based PDA via satellite and a Dell laptop. When he and climbing partners Melissa Arnot and David Morton reached the summit on May 22, Dossett had not only brought some high-profile attention to the RED cause, but had also become only the second Canadian in history to reach the summit of Mount Everest a second time.

Dossett, who grew up in Toronto and said he wasn’t particularly adventurous in his youth, didn’t climb his first mountain until he was 40. Eight years ago, an overworked, overweight, and overstressed Dossett would commute back and forth to Redmond, look out at Mt. Rainier, and wonder if he could ever climb something that impressive—something that grand.

When U2's Bono came to Microsoft, Dossett told the musician, “Listen, I can’t sing, but I can climb mountains,” and shared his plan for EVEREST TEAM INSPI(RED). Dossett and Bono are shown here with Bobby Shriver (left), a cofounder of (RED).

Shopping at REI one weekend, he made a decision to change his life. He saw a poster for the Climb for Clean Air, a fundraising climb of Mount Rainier for the American Lung Association. Though he was unprepared for such a climb, Dossett signed up and started training. At the time, Mount Rainier might as well have been Mount Everest. “I needed that big, bold goal that appeared unattainable, but that I was committed to, to give me the motivation to make change. I wasn’t really sure I could do [Rainier], let alone anything higher than that,” Dossett said. But after making it to the top of Washington State’s tallest peak, he wanted more. “The feeling was so powerful, so motivational, that I thought ‘How do I take this to the next level?’”

After a second trip up Rainier the next year, Dossett decided to do something bigger and bolder. In 2002, Dossett took two years away from work at Microsoft to climb the highest mountain on every continent in the world, known as the Seven Summits. He was only the third Canadian in history to climb the seven mountains: Kilimanjaro in Africa (Tanzania), Aconcagua in South America (Argentina), Elbrus in Europe (Russia), Denali in North America (Alaska), Kosciuszko in Australia, Vinson in Antarctica, and finally Everest in Asia (Nepal).

During this time, when he wasn’t globetrotting and climbing, Dossett would spend between four and six hours a day at ProClub on the stair climber and treadmill. To help pass the endless hours of training, he made good use of several generations of Zune digital media players, listening to music and watching videos as he prepared for his climbs.

“I arguably over prepared and over trained, but that was one way of mitigating the risks,” Dossett said. “Fear is not necessarily a bad thing when it comes to mountaineering. It makes you focus on preparation and aligning yourself with your team.”Dossett (center) climbed Mount Everest in May. His mountain climbing mantra is one perfect step at a time. “You can never let your guard down. One minor mistake at high altitude on a steep ice face is life threatening.”

After climbing Kilimanjaro, the first of the seven peaks he would summit, Dossett spent a couple of weeks in Africa and “witnessed firsthand the pain and suffering of those living with HIV/AIDS. At the time, I knew I had to do more,” he said

When U2’s Bono came to visit Microsoft for an update on what the company was doing to support the (RED) AIDS awareness and relief organization, Dossett was inspired once again to take action and told the musician, “Listen, I can’t sing, but I can climb mountains.” He told Bono of his plan for EVEREST TEAM INSPI(RED) and his hope that it would help inspire others to take action and help make a difference.

On May 22, Dossett climbed to the top of the world, 29,035 feet, this time for a cause he’s passionate about and with the world watching online. “I had a much better sense of what this entire experience was going to be like. What I learned from the first experience is that to summit Everest is as much a mental challenge as it is a physical one,” Dossett said. “In 2008, I arrived with better knowledge, familiarity, and could then focus more on the real purpose of our expedition, which was to raise awareness of PRODUCT (RED) and the AIDS pandemic.”

Climbing Everest requires approximately nine weeks of acclimatization on the mountain, Dossett said. He had to climb six to eight hours every day for over two months, during which he experienced a full range of weather and physical challenges. With the snow and ice and the sun and its intense reflection, there were wildly varying temperatures to cope with. “Many people define mountaineering as long periods of enduring extreme discomfort, and say it’s only enjoyable in retrospect, rarely in the moment itself,” Dossett said.

He has a mantra: one perfect step at a time. “You can never let your guard down. One minor mistake at high altitude on a steep ice face is life threatening. The difference between living and dying is mental focus.”

This quilted flag was designed and created by the Hillcrest AIDS Centre in South Africa for the team’s journey. The flag represents Africa and (RED) efforts in Africa, as well as an artistic view of the Everest profile and a silhouette of the climbers.

Climbing Everest twice in the last eight years has completely changed Dossett’s ideas about his own capabilities and has left him craving new experiences. “It’s fair to say that I am now an adventure junkie, and that as long as I am physically capable, I will pursue relatively extreme adventure experiences because of the self-awareness and the self-learning and the sense of accomplishment of pursuing something beyond your comfort zone,” Dossett said. “At the same time, I have no death wish and do everything in my power to mitigate the risks of my adventures, including extensive skills training.” This is appreciated by his wife and three sons who, in the early days of his climbing, worried about the risk, but also have seen how much Dossett prepares himself and develops his skills for his adventures.

What could possibly be next for him? “Given that I’ve climbed the highest mountain on Earth, there’s a mountain on Mars called Olympus. An 80,000-foot mountain,” Dossett joked. “It’s the seven years getting there and back that I don’t know how to deal with yet.” No matter what the future brings, Everest has changed how he experiences every single day at work and home.

“No one who climbs Mount Everest is ever the same. When you stand on the top of the world, you know it. Having achieved this in my personal life, now I think professionally at Microsoft there’s nothing we can’t achieve,” Dossett said. “It fundamentally resets the expectations of what you think you can achieve in your personal and professional life forever.”

Read more about Dossett’s adventures with TEAM INSPI(RED)

To learn more about (RED), or join Dossett in helping to fight against HIV/AIDS, visit JoinRED.com