Among these, she climbed the glorious Mount Elbert, the highest peak in the entire Rocky Mountains and also the second highest peak in the contiguous United States. She also climbed the hugely variable other 53 mountains in Colorado that are over 14,000 feet (4,200+ metres). They range in level of difficulty from the infamous ‘Knife Edge’ of Capital Peak near Aspen to the Collegiate range, including Mounts Oxford, Harvard, Princeton and Yale. She also climbed two of the most photographed mountains in the world, the Maroon Bells, which are also the most dangerous, due to loose rocks and the treacherous ridge which connects the two “Bells”.
In this talk, Dana tells of the incredible diversity of these mountains and the lessons she learned along the way. She describes her journey from her first fourteener, Long’s Peak, famous for the unique ‘key hole’ feature, to peaks in the San Juan range in southern Colorado, which are so remote that the only access is via a narrow-gauge railroad.
Dana Breitenstein is a mountaineer at heart and has climbed multiple peaks on five continents, including Mount Kebnekaise, the highest mountain in Sweden above the Arctic Circle, Kala Patthar above the Gorakshep in the Nepali Himalayas and Mount Kenya where her husband proposed. In addition, she recently completed the Peak Master challenge in Hong Kong by climbing 262 peaks across the territory.
Dana has a Master’s Degree from Columbia University and is Managing Director of Progress-U, a pioneer in Asia Pacific for Executive Coaching and Culture Transformation. She has spent her career developing leaders and teams for high performance. An avid traveler, she has travelled to over 60 countries and has sought out a mountain to climb in nearly every one.
The Royal Geographical Society - Hong Kong wishes to express its thanks to
Tanner De Witt as the Venue and drinks Sponsor of this talk.
The opinions expressed in this talk are those of the speaker and do not necessarily reflect those of the Royal Geographical Society - Hong Kong.