What the Everest Light Expedition Accomplished:

1. The First North American Woman to reach the Summit of Mt. Everest (Sharon Wood)
2. The First Woman to reach the summit by a New Route
3. Climbers carried all their own loads (no load carriers or Sherpa porters on the climb).
4. Brought everyone back alive - no loss of life.
5. Launched a successful rescue to find an American climber lost in a storm.
6. Overcame impossible odds to reach the summit (route had a 17% chance of success).
7. Expedition pioneered a lighter style of climbing leaving less impact on the environment.

When the team arrived back from their history-making expedition they began telling the story to audiences around the world. Since that remarkable achievement more than 100,000 people have been personally touched and inspired by these climber's experiences and accomplishments.

The next challenge for the team was to discover a way to move people from passive observers to participants in the adventure; from hearing a first person account to gaining first-hand experience. Leading this new venture was Jim Elzinga leader of the expedition and Mark Jenkins the team's storytelling coach who was then President of Face to Face Communications, a corporate training and multimedia company. They joined up with Tim Dixon, a experiential program designer and facilitator who is now a principal of InCourage, a experiential learning company.

Jim, Mark and Tim along with a diverse team of developers and designers began to build a revolutionary program for immersing participants in a true-to-life adventure. Together they created TeamEverest, an indoor adventure program in which there are no physical risks, no footprints left on the mountain. Yet an adventure, which in the spirit of true adventure presents participants with the toughest challenges Everest can offer and demands nothing less than the best the human spirit can respond with.