Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to John Quillen. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

John, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Can you tell us about a time where you or your team really helped a customer get an amazing result?

Being able to help clients push through their prior personal altitude limit is always the best part of the job for me. That involves coaching prior to the climb support during the climb and afterwards. In the past year I’ve been able to take people up to almost 19,000 ft through proper acclimatization. The best thing someone like me can hear is “I never thought I could do that.”

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I’ve been climbing high peaks for quite a while. After summiting Everest in 2018, I decided to start a company that helped people get into the mountains and have their first taste of roped glacier travel in big summits. I know what it feels like to be on guided expeditions and to do solo Alpine assists. I know what kind of support was important to me in achieving my mountain goals. I tried to impart that upon my clients. A lot of high altitude climbing involves preparation. That means coaching people through their training program prior to the climb making sure they have the appropriate support during the climb and being able to debrief after their success after the climb. Not everyone is able to summit. But that is part of this experience. I’m very proud of being able to take people and allow them to push themselves beyond what they thought they were capable.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

After a horrible climbing experience in Pakistan in 2013 I was ready to give up mountaineering. My partner had fallen and shattered his leg and I lost three teammates who never returned from Broad Peak in the Karakorum. Sometimes you have to take a few steps back, have a little break and recalculate. Through great failures can come great success. It just depends on what you do with your failure.

Can you open up about how you funded your business?

My business is 100% self-funded. I’ve never had to borrow money and sometimes that creates problems of its own. But I believe it’s good to have a no debt ratio.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.johnquillenadventures.com
• Instagram: Instagram.com/johnwquillen/
• Linkedin: LinkedIn.com/john-quillen-489789/4
• Twitter: @Southhighlander