Finding true north

It's been five years since the first Mountain High expedition to Everest base camp. Founding adventurer Julie Amer talks to Alex Westcott about stepping out of her comfort zone and encouraging others to do the same.

Julie Amer is beyond anything you could ever expect in terms of energy and zest compacted within a single woman. The combination makes for an inspiring and gutsy individual. Amer comments on this first impression: "People think I'm very lively, energetic and passionate about what I do. I think it's always very clear when someone's doing what they love because they become animated when talking about what they do. But whatever I do, even when I'm climbing the highest mountain in the world, I'm grounded."

Nothing could be more infectious than the introspection of passion – after five minutes with her you feel like you can scale Everest and go back to do it again. It seems no surprise then that she has scaled Annapurna, Everest and made history by winning a silver medal in a world-class dragon boat race. And all this is not a one-woman show. Amer has trained, inspired and encouraged men and women from the UAE and beyond to take charge of their health and reach for what many deem impossible. Amer and her Mountain High teams have – from the top of a few thousand feet mountain peaks – proven that the mind and spirit can truly overcome even the most gruelling physical challenges.

Grounded beginnings

Originally from Yorkshire – with her parents and siblings still based in the UK – Amer is a builder's daughter whose passion has always been sport. A fitness consultant for eight years and a physical education teacher at a college for further education, her move away from the gym to a bigger playground was a natural progression.

She moved to Dubai in 1999 from Kuwait, where she was the first female recreation manager heading the sports facilities at the Holiday Inn Crowne Plaza. Driven by people and places, she was interested in travel and saw the opportunity to live and work in the rapidly developing and exciting Middle East.

Beginning with self discovery

Amer conceptualised the idea for Mountain High on her 40th birthday, which coincided with her first climb of Mt Kinabalu in Malaysia, a trip which she says was her "birthday present". Reaching the top of Mt Kinabalu at 4,095 metres, her reaction was an exuberant 'Ah ha! fantastic!'

"Being on top of a mountain is a natural high. You literally throw your arms in the air when you get there and breathe it all in. That's where the idea for the Mountain High logo came from – that sense of self-achievement that envelops you."

Euphoric at the experience of scaling Mt Kinabalu, Amer felt the need to encourage others to step out of their comfort zones and discover what she herself had experienced. "I don't like to think of it as conquering a mountain," she says. "It goes way beyond that. It's an incredibly powerful experience – it involves meditation and choosing a path to follow; it's a total sensory overload."

Back in Dubai, she set about organising an expedition to the base camp of Mt Everest with a fellow adventurer, Jannike Moe from Norway. The first Mountain High expedition to Everest base camp involved 18 women of eight nationalities and it was for a cause – to raise funds and awareness for breast cancer. The team raised Dh200,000 which was donated to Al Tawam hospital towards the purchase of a mobile breast screening unit. After the trek, she decided that it was time to start her own venture.

At the time she was working with Voyager's Xtreme, an adventure tourism company in Dubai. She resigned and Mountain High was founded on November 1, 2003. Amer threw her energy into organising more projects to encourage others to free their minds and energise their bodies driven by a clear objective: "I wanted to encourage people to live out their wildest dreams – to be M.A.D, which stands for 'making a difference!' I want to motivate others to learn new skills, to make a difference, to have a zest for life and take charge of their health in the name of adventure."

Driven by the community

Mountain High doesn't only focus on self-empowerment; Amer's commitment extends deep into the community. Mountain High aims to educate people on preventive measures and to get ordinary men and women to connect with new communities. Amer advocates 'the power of three': awareness, education and prevention. One of the first charity endeavours she organised was a walk on the Palm before it had been completed. The result of which was that Dh100,000 was raised for the King's Charitable Revival Trust. It was just the beginning.

The health awareness drives gathered momentum and dozens of initiatives followed. Part of the uniqueness of Mountain High is that it has led to many other new initiatives being launched in the UAE. The Jewels of Arabia Challenge involved 16 women raising awareness for diabetes in true Indiana Jones style where participants had to tackle snow, sand, rock and water as part of their adventure.

As part of the Tickled Pink breast cancer awareness series, the UAE's first breast cancer survivors team took Penang by storm and paddled into history by bringing the first silver medals back to the UAE in the sport of dragon boating. The multinational team of 10 paddlers, steered by Amer and headed by Dr Houriya Kazim, raced against the top teams in Asia and Australia and took home second place – a mere 11 seconds behind the current world champions – Australia – over a race distance of 500 metres on the Teluk Bahang Dam.

Amer also organised the first foreign team to participate in the snake boat race in Kerala: "The snake boat race is steeped in history. It goes back years and years to times when tribal wars were fought by participating in the snake boat race and whichever team won, also won the village. Also, it was the first time in the history of the boat race that they had allowed foreign participants. Being part of that meant we were a part of Kerala's history. We teamed up with the local women's team and we all wore saris. It was an amazing cultural experience," she says.

This year on International Women's Day, she organised a jump. Skydive participants took a leap of faith and experienced the adrenaline rush of a 12,000 foot tandem sky dive at Umm Al Quwain aero club, dressed in pink jumpsuits to aid the cause of raising awareness for female breast cancer.

The Arctic Women's Challenge in Svalbard involved dog-sledding, ice caving and a snowmobile safari. This trip was another breast cancer awareness challenge that saw the all- female international team training for weeks leading up to the event at Ski Dubai.

Amer and her team got into action in a new initiative this year by joining the latest health awareness challenge on Aphrodite's Island, Cyprus. The challenge was part of the Go Red for Women global campaign to reduce the incidence of cardiovascular disease in women. The team put their physical and mental capabilities to the test by hiking, biking and swimming to motivate women to exercise more and eat healthy.

Amer and a group also travelled to Namaste, Nepal, this year for a classic Himalayan trek with "stunning scenery, rich culture and to friendly Nepalese villages". The Base Camp Trek involved a maximum altitude of 5,545 metres (Kala Patar, 5,370 metre base camp). There was also a second option for Island Peak with an altitude of 6,197 metres.

The past five years have seen expeditions including destinations such as Kilimanjaro, Jebel Yibia, Morocco, Iran, Lebanon, Sarawak, Sri Lanka, Nepal… the list goes on.

"Until now it has been a one-woman show, but with lots of support from a great network," says Julie. "I'm looking to involving more partners with shared values in the future. Land Rover has been fantastic supporters since 2004 and continue to be the driving force behind several projects around the world and within the UAE. I want to encourage corporate social responsibility. I'm looking for the cherry on the icing on the cake!"

Peak performance

Running NLP-based personal development workshops and coaching in Dubai is the next step for her. Using the mountain as a metaphor, her 'Reaching New Heights' seminars aim to empower people to touch new professional and personal highs. Other workshops such as 'Finding Your True North' focus on enabling people to discover their driving force. Together with her fiance Calin Lewis, Amer's long-term goal is to have lodges in different locations as Mountain High base camps to serve as places of retreat and reconnection.

"We can use the lessons we learn outdoors and apply them to our inner landscapes. I have combined all the lessons that I have learnt from my travels and experiences and dealing with groups and different dynamics and put that into workshops to share that message with a wider audience.

"If you can dream it, you can do it. Goals are dreams with dates on them.

It all starts in your mind. So if you think you can, you can, and if you think you can't, you can't. It's about using those lessons from the mountains, rivers and forests and sharing them with people so as to help them realise their dreams, goals and aspirations.

"I take a holistic approach. If your mind is set that this is what you want to do, then your body, physically, will get you there," says Amer.

"You may wonder at times, 'What am I doing this for? Where is it taking me? How can it make a difference to my community and to the planet?' But these questions themselves are a driving force, because you are doing something about it," she says.

Mountain High expeditions are not solely about physical exertion – they're also about rejuvenation and relocating your centre of emotional and spiritual gravity. She recently hired a dhow at Musandam where groups were able to get out of the city to snorkel and kayak. For Amer it's about taking time for the 'four Rs' – relax, refresh, recharge and renew. She would do yoga and meditate in the morning on the deck followed by workshops focusing on goal setting by creating individual vision boards – a kind of blueprint of life you envision for yourself. She aims to expand on this by taking her workshops to the corporate world in order to strengthen teamwork in the corporate environment. She firmly believes that the lessons you learn in a climbing expedition are all factors which also help you plan your business strategies better.

"In terms of obstacles, it's about getting yourself out there and marketing yourself – if you can't market yourself then you're in trouble. I think it's about looking at ways that you can do it effectively and building a storyboard to get people's emotional buy-in to what you're doing. You're not just coming on a trip – this is for you; you're going to learn new skills, meet new people, connect with new cultures – make a difference by doing something that you've never done before, eat something you've never eaten before. Yes, these are adventure trips, yes, they are retreats, but there's a lot more depth to them than just that," she says.

In terms of buy-ins, Amer and Mountain High have been fortunate because there's nobody else in the region doing what she is doing. Her health initiatives have received a lot of support. "What's great about the UAE market is that you've got so many different nationalities and different age groups so when you bring people together, you've got a combination of wisdom – wisdom of the ages in terms of what a 16-year-old can bring to the group and what a 60-year-old might offer – but also in terms of the different nationalities because we all come from different backgrounds, traditions, values and beliefs, with varying experiences. The biggest challenge you'll face is being honest with yourself about how badly you want to do something. You need to look at what I call the law of prerequisite varieties – you need to have options.

I always say follow your passion – lead with your heart and manage with your mind. Follow your gut feeling," she says.

She is not unaware of the current trend where people are becoming more health-conscious and realising that a work-life balance is important to general well-being: "Over the past 11 years that I've been in Dubai, I've seen more health care initiatives and more attempts to raise awareness – for health, supporting children – the 'feel-good' things in order to make a difference. I think that the whole concept of sustainability – sustaining life, sustaining the environment, sustainable tourism – is enveloped by the realisation of what we're doing to our planet and how we can ease the pressure that we're putting on it."

The sustainability theme is definitely a significant aspect of Mountain High.

Health being your first wealth is a very strong message Amer conveys.

Balancing act

Finding a balance between family, finances and one's health is the greatest challenge for any individual, according to her. She likes to avoid extremes – except of course when she's surrounded by mountains. "Sometimes it's just a matter of reconnecting – of getting behind the eyeballs of somebody else. You might just need that little elbow and an outside perspective. Everything's changing all the time. If I always do what I've always done, I always get what I've always got, so it's vital to move with the times.

"We have an innate desire to be in tune with nature because ages ago, that's where we were all the time. There's also so much technology now with e-mail and cellphones that I find that we actually end up speaking less to one another. I agree that we can't all go and live in a forest – but that's what retreats are for: to take small breaks from it all and to reconnect with nature.

"Mountain High has become such a part of me along with this constant desire to live and grow and to share that with as many people as possible."

Amer also believes that it's the people who come on the that make the trip what it is: "They become your teachers because you learn from them and their responses to different situations. It's been a privilege to work and train for trips and challenges with some amazing people. I meet everyone before they sign up for a challenge.

I explain the values behind it, what's expected of them, our ethos, the clothing that they'll need, what training they'll need.... even the vaccinations they'll need to get. This means that when they're embarking on the trip they can honestly say that they've done as much as possible in terms of preparing themselves and can just enjoy and focus on what the trip or challenge is all about."

She always encourages people to bring along a journal in which to note down their experiences. At the end of the day, during each trip, the team sits around a campfireand discusses their most memorable moments. The amazing thing, Amer says, is that everyone's done the same route and seen the same things but every individual's experience is entirely different.

Natural highs

She recommends that everybody goes to Nepal and Kathmandu and travel through the Himalayas for the sheer pleasure of experiencing peacefulness and an energised atmosphere, a combination that is unforgettable.

The Arctic trips over the last couple of years have made a very big impression on her. "It's just pristine wilderness," she says. "It's a 360 of snow and glaciers and exquisite silence. Working with a team of huskies to move you around is just absolutely breathtaking. All you can hear is the sound of the dogs panting and the sled running through the snow. You can go back to the same place again but it's never the same feeling twice.

"The backwaters of Kerala, the rainforests in Malaysia, the Arctic and the Himalayas... all have left indelible impressions on me."

"I'm a nomad and I love travelling. Do I have a bucket list? Well yes, I'm reviewing it all the time. There's nothing wrong with wanting material possessions – we're not all going to live in a cave for a lifetime – but I think it's the experiences that you take with you that count the most.

"Forget about the past because you can't do anything about that. You create the future. All the decisions that you make today affect what will happen tomorrow and the day after that.

We are responsible – 'response-able' is my catchphrase. Strive to 'be the change that you want to be in the world', and that's a Gandhi quote not a Julie quote!" she laughs. "Be your own architect. Draw up a blueprint for your life and you will find your true north."