Speakers Profile - Duncan Chessell










Travels From:
Adelaide

Fee Range: E


Duncan Chessell has been climbing since 1988, first on the crags and in the gorges of Australia's National Parks and then on snowy hills all around the globe. He has world-class expertise in exploratory and high altitude expeditions.

He is an accomplished and respected mountain guide and company director of DCXP Mountain Journeys: an Adelaide-based international mountain guiding and trekking company employing guides and support crew to facilitate adventures in the mountains of the world.

Duncan has climbed Mount Everest twice (2001 and 2007) and is the only South Australian, and one of only a few Australians, to have climbed the world's highest peak. Under Duncan's leadership in 2007, 15 of 19 climbers summited Mount Everest with no loss of life or frostbite: the most successful Australian Everest expedition ever.

He climbed the seventh of "The Seven Summits" on the 1st of January 2007, leading the Centacare Antarctic Challenge expedition of four climbers, a journey of some 400km across the Ellsworth Mountain Range. The team pioneered the first ever climb from sea level to the highest point in Antarctica, Mount Vinson.

Duncan is one of an elite group of expedition leaders worldwide to have led expeditions to all of The Seven Summits.

Duncan's company DCXP (Duncan Chessell Expeditions) runs treks worldwide, including on the Kokoda Track, Mount Kilimanjaro, and to Everest Base Camp in both Nepal and Tibet. Many of DCXP's mountaineering expeditions and courses are in the Himalayas; climbs of Mount Everest, Mount Cho Oyu and the well-regarded Himalayan Five Peaks Climbing Course, as well as the mountains of South America and Antarctica.

Lately Duncan has been spending more time at his desk, and enjoying the business challenges of managing his own company.

DCXP was founded in 2002, and employs 12 full time staff. He still
manages to get into the field a few times a year and fights hard to maintain the balance between work, family and personal goals.