EVERY year hundreds of people are lured into the ‘death zone’ on Mount Everest. A handful will be prepared to die. Others will willingly lose fingers and toes to frostbite if it means they have conquered the world’s highest mountain.
“That may be their measure of success,” said Rhys Jones, who stood on the 29,035ft summit of Mount Everest on his 20th birthday. “But it’s not mine.”
Rhys today runs a company that specialises in guiding people to some of the most inhospitable places on earth. He is prepared to take risks. But only calculated ones.
And as someone who has faced unimaginable dangers, he regularly briefs companies on the importance of safety, risks and teamwork.
“There are many parallels between what happens in a company, like INEOS, and on a mountain,” he said. “But they work in a hazardous place all the time. I am only at risk in the mountains.”
Rhys, now 33, was recently invited to address INEOS O&P USA’ annual safety training event at the Chocolate Bayou site in Texas.
“When we are planning the event, we encourage everyone to think creatively about our safety messages,” said Michael Brocato, environmental engineer. “By adopting a fresh approach, we hope to inspire and motivate our employees to be safe. It doesn’t matter whether you work on an INEOS site or are standing on the summit of Everest, safety is safety.”
During his talk to the US team, Rhys explored attitudes to risk and how safety must always be the top priority.
“A successful mountaineering expedition, in my view, is always one where no one is injured,” he said. But he said, for that to work, everyone on the team had to share that vision. “As a team, you need to define your measure of success,” he said. “And mine, like INEOS’, is zero injuries.”
INEOS staff were told how he had recently guided an Everest expedition.
“Our aim was to get as high as we could without getting frostbite or injured,” he said. “We were prepared to turn back if necessary and half of the team did.”
A second expedition team, who were also planning to climb Everest that day, though, had a different view. Among them was a surgeon, who said he was willing to lose fingers and toes to frostbite. That group all made it to the summit but two thirds of them got frostbite and one climber lost all his toes.
“Everest can make intelligent people take stupid risks,” said Rhys.
On another expedition – to Aconcagua, the highest mountain in South America – a fellow climber’s eyeballs started to freeze because he forgot to wear his goggles once the sun started rising. “It was a preventable injury but it became a big issue for him and the whole team,” said Rhys. “Yet a bystander could have helped him and told him he needed to put his goggles on.”Teamwork, he said, was critical.
At INEOS, watching out for others in the team is essential. It is known as Brother’s Keeper. Rhys, who lives in a world of ropes, crampons and ice axes, said there was also no room for complacency.
“When you first start climbing you check your harness, then check and check again,” he said. “But after you have done it 1,000 times, it’s easy to become complacent. The secret is to treat every day like your first day when it comes to safety.”
Michael said the team at INEOS O&P USA had felt inspired and empowered by Rhys’ talk.
“We often use the message that our definition of a successful project is one where there are no injuries first, then business objectives second,” he said. “Rhys was able to echo that sentiment.”
He said several members of staff were also inspired to learn that it was INEOS Chairman Sir Jim Ratcliffe who had sponsored Rhys in 2006 to help him become the youngest person in the world to climb the seven highest summits on the world’s seven continents.
Rhys Jones
An English mountaineer who was the youngest person to climb the the highest mountain on each of the world's seven continents. He reached the summit of his final mountain, Mount Everest, on his 20th birthday in 2006. He and his business partner now run Monix Adventures, which specialises in luxury adventure travel.