Chessell has been climbing since 1988, guiding since 1994, and has climbed and guided on all seven continents. He started out on the crags and in the gorges of National Parks of Australia, then moved on to larger mountains around the world. He is one of few Australian mountaineers to have climbed and guided Mount Everest and the first South Australian to summit. He has summited Mt Everest three times, in 2001, 2007 and 2010. His ascent in 2010 was from sea level, riding 1600km from the ocean in India.
In 2006, Chessell worked with a group of young people with cancer, known as CanTeen, guiding them to climb Mt Kilimanjaro.[2] His favourite expedition was a sea-to-summit ascent of the highest peak in Antarctica, Mt Vinson in 2007, with fellow Australians Rob North, Peter Weeks, and Rob Jackson.
He founded DCXP Mountain Journeys Pty Ltd in late 2000, which he ran for a decade guiding the seven summits including guiding Mt Everest commercially and summiting Mt Everest three times. Other destinations included the Kokoda Track in Papua New Guinea, which his company DCXP guided thousands of Australian trekkers over between 2003 and 2010.[3] He was a member of the New Zealand Mountain Guides Association.
In 2010, Chessell sold DCXP, and shifted back into the field of geology and became the managing director of the public mineral exploration company Endeavour Discoveries Ltd (2010-2016). Endeavour was based in South Australia exploring for base and precious metals such as nickel and gold in Papua New Guinea, South Australia and the Northern Territory. In 2011 he became the chairman of Endeavour Discoveries Ltd.
In 2014, Chessell was founding chairman of the Himalayan Development Foundation Australia Inc (HDFA) an organisation dedicated to the helping children in a Nepal get a start in life via education.[4] The HDFA has raised over A$100,000 in its first year and built a boarding school in Nepal with some of the proceeds in the remote Kanchenjunga region of East Nepal. Over its first five years of operation HDFA has delivered school rebuilds, built health posts, micro hydro electric schemes, upgraded education and livelihood programs to over 10,000 people in Nepal in three regions: Kanchenjunga, Indrawati and Sindhupalchowk delivering over A$1,000,000 in projects.
Kangchenjunga, also spelled Kanchenjunga, Kanchanjanghā and Khangchendzonga, is the third-highest mountain in the world. Its summit lies at 8,586 m (28,169 ft) in a section of the Himalayas, the Kangchenjunga Himal, which is bounded in the west by the Tamur River, in the north by the Lhonak River and Jongsang La, and in the east by the Teesta River. It lies in the border region between Koshi Province of Nepal and Sikkim state of India, with the two peaks West and Kangbachen in Nepal's Taplejung District and the other three peaks Main, Central and South directly on the border.
Mount Everest is Earth's highest mountain above sea level, located in the Mahalangur Himal sub-range of the Himalayas. The China–Nepal border runs across its summit point. Its elevation of 8,848.86 m was most recently established in 2020 by the Chinese and Nepali authorities.
The Seven Summits are the highest mountains on each of the seven traditional continents. On 30 April 1985, Richard Bass became the first climber to reach the summit of all seven.
The eight-thousanders are the 14 mountains recognised by the International Mountaineering and Climbing Federation (UIAA) as being more than 8,000 metres (26,247 ft) in height above sea level, and sufficiently independent of neighbouring peaks. There is no precise definition of the criteria used to assess independence, and at times, the UIAA has considered whether the list should be expanded to 20 mountain peaks by including the major satellite peaks of eight-thousanders. All of the eight-thousanders are located in the Himalayan and Karakoram mountain ranges in Asia, and their summits lie in an altitude known as the death zone.
Alan Hinkes OBE is an English Himalayan high-altitude mountaineer from Northallerton in North Yorkshire. He is the first British mountaineer to claim all 14 Himalayan eight-thousanders, which he did on 30 May 2005.
Peter Athans is one of the world's foremost high-altitude mountaineers. In 2008 he was celebrated for summiting Mount Everest seven times, and was given the moniker "Mr. Everest". His first attempt to climb Everest in 1985 via the West Ridge, and further attempts in 1986, 1987, and 1989 were unsuccessful, but he succeeded in summitting in 1990 as part of an expedition that included Scott Fischer and Wally Berg.
Tim Macartney-Snape is an Australian mountaineer and author. On 3 October 1984 Macartney-Snape and Greg Mortimer were the first Australians to reach the summit of Mount Everest. They reached the summit, climbing without supplementary oxygen, via a new route on the North Face. In 1990, Macartney-Snape became the first person to walk and climb from sea level to the top of Mount Everest. Macartney-Snape is also the co-founder of the Sea to Summit range of outdoor and adventure gear and accessories, a guide for adventure travel company World Expeditions and a founding director and patron of the World Transformation Movement.
Apa, nicknamed "Super Sherpa", is a Nepalese Sherpa mountaineer who, until 2017, jointly with Phurba Tashi held the record for reaching the summit of Mount Everest more times than any other climber. As part of The Eco Everest Expedition 2011, Apa made his 21st Mount Everest summit in May 2011 then retired after a promise to his wife to stop climbing after 21 ascents. He first summited Everest in 1990 and his last time to the summit was in 2011.
Mount Everest is the world's highest mountain, with a peak at 8,849 metres (29,031.7 ft) above sea level. It is situated in the Himalayan range of Solukhumbu district, Nepal.
Lincoln Rossl Hall OAM was a veteran Australian mountain climber, adventurer and author. Lincoln was part of the first Australian expedition to climb Mount Everest in 1984, which successfully forged a new route. He reached the summit of the mountain on his second attempt in 2006, miraculously surviving the night at 8,700 m (28,543 ft) on descent, after his family was told he had died.
Russell Reginald Brice is a New Zealand mountaineer. He was the owner/manager of Himex, a climbing expedition company. He has summited Cho Oyu seven times, Himal Chuli and Mount Everest twice, as well as Manaslu in October 2010, which was his 14th summit of an 8000 m peak.
Dawa Steven Sherpa is a Nepalese Sherpa adventurer, entrepreneur and environmentalist, known for his contributions to mountaineering, environmental conservation, and social welfare in Nepal.
Lieutenant Colonel Zacharakis Zaharias, is a retired senior Australian Army officer, veteran Australian mountain climber, adventurer and outdoor trainer. Zaharias was part of the Australian Army expedition that climbed Mount Everest in 2010. Zaharias was one of six Australians and two Britons who made it to the summit on 25 May 2010 with an expedition led by South Australian Duncan Chessell. Zaharias is a graduate of the Royal Military College, Duntroon (1974–77) and has served with the Royal Australian Engineers, including appointments as Commanding Officer 5th Combat Engineer Regiment (5CER) and 5th Engineer Regiment (5ER), at the Australian Defence Force Academy, and with the United Nations. Zaharias is the president of the Canberra Climbers Association.
Lhakpa Sherpa is a Nepalese Sherpa mountain climber. She has climbed Mount Everest ten times, the most of any woman in the world. Her record-breaking tenth climb was on May 12, 2022, which she financed via a crowd-funding campaign. In 2000, she became the first Nepali woman to climb and descend Everest successfully. In 2016, she was listed as one of BBC's 100 Women.
Richard "Rick" Agnew is an Australian alpine mountaineer and high altitude sports aviator who has completed the Seven Summits climbing Mount Everest and many other peaks. He holds over 40 international and Australian speed, distance and height aviation records.
Subedar Major and Honorary Captain Chhering Norbu Bodh, SC, (retd.) is a retired personnel of the Indian Army, known for his mountaineering achievements while in the army. Bodh holds a number of Indian summiting records related to 8,000m peaks. Among others, he is the first Indian mountaineer to have climbed six of the fourteen 8000m peaks in the world, and the first Indian to stand atop Lhotse and Annapurna-1.
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