Travels From South Australia
Speaker Topics
Adapting to Change
On the mountain, change is constant—weather turns, routes collapse, and plans dissolve in an instant. Survival depends on flexibility.
Steve’s stories reveal how retreating from Annapurna, enduring the aftermath of an Everest tragedy, or improvising after a near-fatal Alpine fall became turning points rather than endings. In each moment, he discovered that setbacks aren’t failures—they’re invitations to adapt.
These lessons extend far beyond climbing. Change in life, like on the mountain, is not an obstacle but a compass. Ascending Through Adversity challenges us to meet the unknown with openness, to treat uncertainty as fertile ground, and to uncover strength we didn’t know we had.
Ascending Through Adversity
Mountains don’t just test climbers—they reveal the resilience, adaptability, and integrity we all need to face life’s challenges. In Ascending Through Adversity, pioneering mountain guide Steve Bell shares powerful lessons from the Alps, Everest, and the Seven Summits. With raw honesty, he recounts triumphs, tragedies, and turning points that shaped his life on the mountain and in business. His stories inspire audiences to see setbacks as opportunities, change as a compass, and self-belief as the ultimate tool for success. Steve’s message is clear: the greatest summits aren’t out there—they’re the ones we climb within ourselves.
Read lessFinding Our Resilience
The world’s most formidable mountains reveal more than rock and ice—they uncover the strength and fragility of the human spirit.
In Ascending Through Adversity, Steve Bell guides audiences through the peaks and valleys of a life spent climbing, where every ascent carried lessons far beyond the mountain. He shares stories of triumph and failure, courage and doubt, joy and heartbreak. From tumbling headfirst down an Alpine north face, to turning back on Annapurna, to navigating a tragedy on Everest, Steve’s experiences expose truths that linger long after the summit fades.
He doesn’t gloss over fear, guilt, or regret—but within those shadows are lessons in generosity, leadership, and gratitude. His stories invite reflection, showing that resilience isn’t about denying hardship but transforming it. Ascending Through Adversity reminds us that the greatest summits are the ones we climb within ourselves.
Risk, Responsibility, and the Lure of the Summit
Temptation on the mountain can be as dangerous as avalanches or storms. Steve knows this better than most—his brush with ambition nearly cost him his life, and years later, it nearly cost him his business.
Spanning three decades, he takes audiences through reckless choices made on icy ridges and in corporate boardrooms, culminating in a long-buried consequence he once kept secret. The story is thrilling, sobering, and deeply human.
At its heart, this is not just an adventure tale, but a lesson in ethics and responsibility. The call is clear: success means little if we sacrifice integrity to reach the summit.
The Seven Summits of Success
From Alaska’s frozen ranges to the jungles of West Papua, from Antarctica’s emptiness to Everest’s airless summit, Steve has stood on the roof of every continent. Each of these Seven Summits revealed more than physical endurance—they became milestones of mindset.
Every climb offered a tool for life: belief, persistence, adaptability, trust. Together, they form a map for growth and achievement.
With humour, candour, and awe-inspiring stories, Steve shows how self-belief transforms obstacles into stepping stones. His journey up the world’s greatest mountains is an unforgettable illustration of how, in whatever walk of life, we can all rise higher.
Steve Bell
Mountaineer, Adventurer, and Storyteller on Courage, Reinvention, and Life at the Edge
Steve Bell grew up on the southwest coast of the UK where he discovered his affinity for the outdoors. Educated at a large state school, he spurned parental expectations and followed his heart to the Alps where he became a mountaineer, scaling climbs that were beyond his ability. He was lucky to survive, but he discovered the thrilling sense of achievement that comes when you overcome fear and push through pain. This discovery would determine the course of his life.
Steve’s first trip to the Himalaya was a turning point. Realising he’d over-reached, he took a break from mountaineering and went to Antarctica where he spent four months in a tent. A commission in the Royal Marines followed, serving in Cyprus, Zimbabwe, and NATO exercises in Norway and the Mediterranean. But the mountains were never far from his mind. When a military expedition to Everest was announced, he had to go. His team attempted the West Ridge, one of Everest’s hardest climbs, in 1988 and again in 1992. Although he turned back 300m below the summit, the experience showed him he could climb at extreme altitude.
In 1987 Steve set up a trekking company with a friend. Trekking to base camp was never going to be enough, so Steve soon began taking clients up mountains, leading expeditions to a 7000m peak in 1989 and an 8000m peak in 1991. In 1993 he led the first British guided ascent of Everest — with sixteen summiteers, it was the most successful commercial expedition of its time.
Steve founded Jagged Globe in 1995 and led teams up the rest of the Seven Summits — the highest mountain all seven continents — completing them in 1997. Now qualified as an international mountain guide (IFMGA), he headed up a newly formed High Altitude Guiding sub-committee which established principles of best practice, and he played a leading role in setting up a self-regulating body for the rapidly evolving high altitude guiding industry.
Having achieved all his goals in the UK, Steve emigrated to Australia in 2004 with his wife and three children. He worked with a New Zealand mountain guiding company and led the occasional expedition for Jagged Globe. Divorce was followed by a chronic illness which ended his mountaineering career and forced him to reinvent himself. The next few years were a wild adventure while he explored different paths, eventually settling on writing and speaking about his experiences and sharing the lessons he’s learned.
Steve Bell is the author two books with two more in the pipeline. He’s married to the South Australian artist, Rossy Reeves, and lives on the Fleurieu Peninsula at an altitude of nine metres above sea-level, four rope-lengths from the sea.