The Logistics of Moving Freight on Mount Everest
As John Stenderup, Manager, Grower-Shipper Supply Chain Services, with C.H. Robinson recently learned during his journey to tackle two of the tallest peaks in the world, the logistics of it all is a primary and critical challenge, and as with any supply chain, success requires a multimodal approach.
A lot of stories have been told about the challenges that come with climbing Mount Everest.
Many of them focus on the summit push itself - the high highs and the low lows of such a dangerous mission.
What a lot of people don’t know, though, is that the summit window is a small piece of the adventure - a couple of days of what generally works out to be a two-month expedition.
During those 60 days, climbers utilize hundreds of pounds of gear and supplies, and it’s not as simple as shipping everything you need to the various camps on or near the mountain.
As I learned during my recent journey to tackle two of the tallest peaks in the world, the logistics of it all is a primary and critical challenge. And as with any supply chain, success requires a multimodal approach.
Adaptability, Visibility, and Resiliency
In any supply chain, disruptions and unexpected circumstances are often an inevitability. No matter how much we prepared and planned for every phase of our Everest expedition, events happened that required us to make adjustments along the way.
Good communication, flexibility, and adapting to unique solutions became essential components in the process. So whether you’re trying to move a thousand pounds of copper wiring across the country or you’re attempting to climb to the top of the world, it’s pretty apparent that you need a great supply chain - and the right people with the right expertise at the right time - in order to truly be successful.
But whether you’re on a mountain peak or harvesting crops on a family farm, the only guarantee is that nothing will go exactly according to plan.
That’s just one of the many connections I discovered between mountaineers and produce growers, get the full story in my ”What I Learned About Produce Growers While On Top Of The World” blog.
