Russell Brice
Legendary Expedition Leader. Expert on Team Dynamics, Leadership and Risk Management
Russell Brice is a renowned expedition leader and highly accomplished mountaineer in his own right. His insights on leadership, project management, teamwork and bringing out the best from people, even in the most difficult circumstances, makes him an outstanding choice to inspire and train your corporate team.
Russell is perhaps best known as founder and Chief Executive of Himalayan Experience. This renowned expedition management company has successfully guided 400 people to the summit of Everest and more than 750 climbers to the summits of eight different eight-thousand metre peaks.
Russell has worked on and featured in many documentaries and films about Mount Everest. Himalayan Experience were followed for three seasons in 2006, 2007 and 2009 for the Discovery series Everest Beyond the Limits. In 2014, Russell was the location manager and central figure for the award winning documentary film, Sherpa.
In his own climbing career, Russell was the first person to climb all thirty of New Zealand’s three-thousand metre peaks in one season. He developed Chamonix Experience which guided clients on the major peaks of Europe including ninety ascents of Mount Blanc.
Russell has been involved in many developmental projects in Nepal, beginning in 1974 when he helped Ed Hillary build the Phaphlu Hospital. He was leader of the first ascent of the North Ridge of Ama Dablam and West Ridge of Himala Chuli. He has been to the summit of Mount Everest twice, Cho Oyo nine times, Shishapangma twice, and Manaslu – a total of fourteen eight thousand metre summits as well as the Seven Summits.
Russell climbed Ama Dablam in just three hours and twenty minutes and Cho Oyo in eleven hours, not to set records, but to see if it was possible to make such climbs in one day. He was also the first person to cross the Pinnacles on Everest’s North East Ridge.
Other international projects include Ballooning Over Everest, Cable and Wireless Balloon Around the World, and the Qinetiq Balloon to the Edge of Space expeditions. More recently he was logistics coordinator for an experimental high-altitude flying project in Alice Springs.