At age 37, Luis Benitez stands among the world’s foremost high altitude mountaineers and Leadership Management consultants. On May 21, 2007, Luis achieved his sixth summit of Mt. Everest . 2010 will see Benitez attempting the Cessen Route on K2 , while 2011 saw Benitez working with World Team Sports and Outward Bound on an expedition in Nepal.
Benitez has most recently led expeditions for Adventure Consultants Ltd., “AC,” a highly respected New Zealand-based expedition firm with a long Everest history. AC was founded by Rob Hall, who perished in the heavily documented 1996 disaster. Benitez also climbed with the blind athlete Erik Weihenmayer to his historic 2001 Everest summit, chronicled in the feature film “Farther Than The Eye Can See” and also in Erik’s book “Touch the Top of the World”. He has reached the top of six of the famed “Seven Summits” a cumulative 32 times.
Over the last decade, as the ranks of high altitude mountaineering fill with capable amateur climbers pursuing their personal adventure dreams, Benitez has quietly emerged as one of the most experienced, respected and busiest professional guides and leadership consultants in the world, managing expeditions and Leadership Seminars year-round to the tallest, most remote peaks on the planet. Consulting in a mountaineering environment is a unique profession, one that requires equal measures of caution and courage. Benitez tries to tie in the life lessons available in the mountains to carry back to every day life and challenges during his keynote presentations and seminars.
Benitez has also conducted an annual leadership and personal growth through mountaineering seminar in Ecuador and Chile for the University of Pennsylvania ‘s Wharton School of Business. The course is so popular that it has been wait-listed for each of the last four years. He is also a mountaineering correspondent for “The ESPN Colorado Outdoor Show”. In addition to “Farther Than the Eye Can See” (2003), he has been featured in films such as “Visions of Everest” (2002) and “Shadow of the Condor” (2002). In 2006, Benitez reported from Mt. Everest for ABC-TV News and filmed a segment for an episode of National Geographic’s weekly TV series “Wild Chronicles,” which aired this year on PBS.
In 1992, Benitez was hired by the prestigious Leadership Management and consulting firm Outward Bound Professional in Denver , Colorado . He initially conducted courses in mountaineering, rock climbing and avalanche training, as well as teaching skiing, ice climbing and kayaking all with the fundamentals of leadership, communication, and problem solving at the core of the curricula. . He maintains his position with Outward Bound Professional to this day, now designing and leading domestic and international professional team building and Leadership development programs such as the Executive Leadership Expeditions as OBP’s Rocky Mountain Regional Director www.outwardboundpro.com/ELE. As a recent graduate of Leadership Denver 2009, he looks forward to infusing his local community with innovative Leadership Development programs.
Currently furthering his involvement for the betterment of the Tibetan culture and people after witnessing fleeing Tibetan refugees gunned down by Chinese soldiers in 2006, Benitez has fought tirelessly for Tibetans in Exile via International Campaign for Tibet based in Washington DC . Benitez also strives to give something more back to the communities he travels thru. He also serves on the board of a non profit that focuses on service based expeditions around the world to not only bring people overseas to climb and trek, but to also teach them about local issues, from housing to healthcare; www.trekkingforkids.org If there is any message that Luis likes to leave with people and groups he works with, it is this, “never be afraid to go out and find your own Everest.”
