Kenton Cool on conquering summits and safeguarding the planet

Few names in mountaineering command as much respect as Kenton Cool. 

With over 16 successful ascents of Mount Everest and a career spent tackling some of the world’s most formidable peaks, he has redefined what it means to be an adventurer. 

His expeditions have taken him from the Himalayas to the Alps, building a reputation as one of the most accomplished climbers of his generation.

For travellers and explorers, Kenton’s story is more than a tale of summits and records – it’s about resilience, teamwork, and the profound lessons the mountains teach.

Alongside his climbing feats, he has become a powerful voice on climate change, having witnessed its devastating effects firsthand in some of the world’s most fragile environments.

In this exclusive interview with The Champions Speakers Agency, Kenton shares his insights into building mental strength, the urgency of protecting our planet, and the life-changing perspective that comes from standing on the world’s highest summits.

Q: Mountaineering pushes the limits of human endurance. How do you build the mental strength to face such challenges—especially in extreme conditions?

Kenton Cool: “It’s a deep, rich subject, isn’t it, and it is a really individual thing. Because some people will build resilience through callousing the mind. Going out there – and this is one way that I would do it – I will go outside and I will continue to push myself despite conditions or whatever it is.

“If it’s running, I will go out – I run every day, for instance. It doesn’t matter what the weather is; I will go out and run. 

“To be frank, the worse the weather, the more joy I get out of it to an extent, because what I’m doing is I’m callousing my mind. So that when the weather is good, it’s like, well, this is easy.

“Because I’ve experienced the bad stuff, I’ve experienced the rain or the sleet or the hail in my face, I’ve calloused my mind so that the difficult aspects of everyday life become almost unimportant. 

“But that doesn’t work for everybody. Not everybody likes beating their head against the wall to generate some form of resilience.

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“Resilience generally comes from experience. The more you do something, the better you’re going to be at it. For instance, we’ve just seen an amazing ascent – a winter ascent of K2 this weekend – the last of the 8,000-metre peaks to be climbed in winter.

“The team of Sherpas that climbed it, phenomenal. 

“One of those guys, Pen Chewie, is one of those ten guys that people probably haven’t heard of. Everybody’s hearing about Mingma G, about Mingma David, about Nimsdai. These are the big, larger-than-life characters within that team.

“Pemba Shering is a dear friend of mine, and in 2006 – not that long ago, 14 years ago – he was a cook boy on my expedition to Everest.

“A cook boy – that’s about as low, the lowest of the low within the team structure. Towards the end of the expedition, he asked if he could go up to Camp Two on Everest to help some of the other Sherpas bring the loads back down at the end of the expedition.

“Of course, I said yes. But he didn’t have the equipment he needed, so I lent him my boots. He climbed up to Camp Two in boots that were around four sizes too big for him. Sherpas are generally quite small guys, and they have small feet, and I’ve got big feet. But he loved every second of it.

“Fast forward 14 years, and he summits K2 in winter – about 48 hours ago [January 16, 2021]. That is arguably the pinnacle of high-altitude mountaineering. It would have taken resilience and determination beyond what I can comprehend. 

“Minus 50 [degrees] up near the summit. They were lucky that it was a really good day, but they were carrying huge loads, they were fixing – I mean, this is the very pinnacle.

“That didn’t happen overnight. That resilience that he has, that machine, that didn’t happen overnight. It took time. It took time being a cook boy and then going up to Camp Two, and then getting a job on another expedition as a load carrier to Camp Two.

“Exposing himself to all the different aspects of high-altitude climbing.

“And each time he’s doing it, he’s learning – both consciously and subconsciously – and it’s going into the experience jar, the cookie jar, whatever you want to call it. The reservoir of fortitude that we all build up. Then over time, his resilience, his determination, his skill set just gets higher and higher and higher.

“Fast forward to last Saturday – he’s at 8,500 metres. It’s, I say, pushing minus fifty. They’re gunning for the summit. They left from Camp Three; they didn’t even use Camp Four. They’re on the very edge of human endurance and perseverance.

“What is it that pushes him through to gain the summit? Because at any point on that summit day, any of them could have said, ‘You know what, I’ve had enough. I’m turning around.’

“Very, very easy decision to make. Just turn around and go back down, call it a day, get yourself out of that hellhole. Because it would have been like hell up there. But none of them did.

“And the reason why they did it is because over the years, they have built that resilience that they need to be able to cope with that environment. 

“An environment which none of them ever knew they were building up towards. All you can do is fill up your cookie jar, fill up your experience jar, and then when you need to, you can unscrew the lid, peel inside, and dip inside and go, you know what, I’ve experienced something a bit like this before. Look in there – there it is. I’ve done this before.

“And that is one of the best ways you can build up the mental fortitude that we need, certainly in the mountains. None of us would be naïve enough to throw ourselves into the lion’s den without some form of practice. 

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“It’s that continued practice that makes a difference. You fill up the experience, so that when you really, really need it, subconsciously – I don’t know what it is, the neurons or whatever – they’re firing: we’ve done this, we can do it again. We’ve done it before, we can do it again.

“Okay, it’s further, it’s harder, it’s longer, it’s higher, it’s colder. But yeah, we’ve experienced some of this before. And that’s what allows us to keep pushing forward.

“And it doesn’t matter if it’s climbing mountains, running a marathon, running a big business corporation, doing a start-up. There will be the unknowns along the way, but there’s always an aspect of what you’re doing that will resonate with you because you’ve done it before.

“It’s the same with a child growing up. A child will try to stand up for the first time and fall over. And stand up and fall over, stand up and fall over. It’s not going to happen today or tomorrow, might not happen next week, but at some stage it’s going to happen. 

“If you build up enough experience, finally the baby stands up. Build up enough experience, finally the start-up works. You have enough experience and suddenly you’re standing on the summit.

“That’s, in my opinion, how you build up the resilience and the fortitude to be able to continue to push through things despite everything that’s been thrown at us. It’s fascinating. It’s deeply, deeply fascinating. I think I’ve kind of learned that from Sir Ranulph Fiennes. 

“He worked with me for six, seven years, and if there’s nothing else, learning from others is one of the most powerful ways of learning. 

“To learn from somebody like Ranulph Fiennes was a pleasure and a privilege, and I don’t think there’s anybody out there that’s better at mental fortitude than he is. So some of those six, seven years I’ve spent certainly rubbed off, I think, in the end.”

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Q: You’ve witnessed climate change firsthand in some of the world’s most remote places. Can you share a striking example that illustrates the changing environment?

Kenton Cool: “The effects of global warming – oh my goodness, it’s everywhere. It’s all around us, unfortunately. God, I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a hundred times: we are mere stewards on this wonderful thing called Earth.

“We’re meant to be guardians for the next generation, and I hold my head in my hands at what we’ve done to this planet. The effects of global warming are all around us. They truly are.

“I think the easiest way to describe it is in Chamonix in France, where I used to live, there’s a train that was built in the 1800s that goes up to a hotel on the Mer de Glace, one of the biggest glaciers in Europe. 

“When it was first built in, I forget exactly when, 1850-ish, the train used to go up to a hotel that was built up there, and you used to be able to get out of the train and pretty much go straight onto the glacier. The glacier was right next to the hotel.

“Fast forward 150 years, 170 years, and now the train takes you on like it always used to. The hotel is still there, but the glacier – the glacier’s way down there somewhere. 

“The glacier is 200 metres lower down, possibly more. So what they’ve had to do is build a cable car to take you from the train down to where the glacier was.

“They built this cable car, I think, in the 80s. Since the cable car was built in the 80s, they’ve had to put about 100 metres’ worth of metal stairs in place to help you get down. 

“Every 10 years or so, they have to put more and more sections of stairs in to get down to the glacier.

“What they’ve done to really hammer it home: there are plaques on the side as you come down the steps. The glacier was here in 1950. The glacier was here in 1960. 

“You stand in these spots, which are say 20 years old – you know, the glacier was here in 1990 – and you look down, and it’s down there. It’s devastating.

“That’s just a vertical loss in the glacier. But the total area of glacial loss – you can’t compute it with your mind, it’s colossal, and that’s not coming back.

“2020 was the third warmest year on record. Now, I studied geology. I studied palaeoclimate. I studied palaeoenvironment. Of course, the Earth goes through periods of warming and cooling. We all know that. But we are accelerating the warming phase that the Earth is going through.

“You cannot debate that we, as human beings, are having a profound negative impact on the planet. 

“You can see it all over the mountains. We see it on Everest. We see it in the Alps, like I’ve just mentioned. Switzerland is destined to lose over 14% of its glacial area in the next five years.

“Fourteen percent in five years. That’s at current warming rates, and warming rates are only going to accelerate. 

“It’s something I am so passionate about. There are three things we can do as individuals which will really help the planet.

“Number one is think very hard about how we get our power – where do we get our power and energy from? 

“Number two is travel. I hold my hand up, I’m guilty of travel, especially air travel – Air travel is incredibly destructive to our planet.

“Number three is what we eat. Essentially, eat more plants and less meat. The meat industry is more culpable to climate change than the entire global transportation system.

“Now, I’m not saying that people should go vegan or plant-based. All I’m saying is: think hard about your choices when it comes to your diet. 

“Think hard about your choices when it comes to your travel options. And think hard about your choices when it comes to your energy consumption.

“They are the three things that we, as individuals, can do that will have a profound effect on what we are doing to the planet. It’s something I’m so passionate about.”

This exclusive interview with Kenton Cool was conducted by Megan Lupton of The Motivational Speakers Agency.

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