Everest summiteer delivers Bernstein Women of Influence Lecture

In 2008, Shailee Basnet of Nepal stood on the summit of Mt Everest, one of ten Nepali women to climb the highest mountain in the world.

Remarkably, she and most of her team members were first-time mountaineers. Basnet also went on to lead her team in additional climbs, scaling the highest peak on each continent.

Basnet brought stories of her high-altitude adventures to Alfred University last week, delivering the Pamela Lavin Bernstein Women of Influence Lecture and hosted by the university's Judson leadership Center.

Since her summiting days, she has been a guest lecturer for business and leadership programs around the world. She and her style of leadership were profiled in The Leader Within Us: Mindset, Principles, and Tools for a Life by Design, by entrepreneur Warrant Rustan. She and her team's journey have also been featured in two books: Les Népalaises de l'Everest by Anne Benoit-Janin, and 50 Women from Nepal Who Will Change the Way You See the World, written and published by Bec Ordish in 2021.

Speaking at Alfred University last week, Basnet drew connections between high-altitude mountaineering - the kind of climbing that requires years of planning and months of grueling physical activity - and the demands of leadership in lower-altitude, everday endeavors.

"If you have a mountain to climb, you can go up quickly," she said, "You can come back down quickly. If you have a small goal, vision, mission in life, you can go up quickly, come back down quickly. But if you have a big mountain to climb, or maybe if you have a big goal, big vision, big mission in your life, then you better spend a lot of time down at the bottom, because you are going to need that extra oxygen in your system to take the highest doe of Everest."

She added for the benefit of all the future summiteers, no matter the altitude, "I hope you all find your Everest, and you get there with all of your mind, body, and spirit."