Sharon Wood Speaker Biography
First North American Woman to Climb Everest
On May 20, 1986, at 9:00 pm, Sharon Wood became the first North American woman to reach the summit of Mount Everest, the highest mountain in the world, and just the sixth woman worldwide to achieve this incredible feat.
Rock Climbing
As a teenager, her intolerance of complacency and her appetite for adventure led her to learn rock climbing. Its physical and mental demands helped her to discover new personal strengths. Concepts such as commitment, adaptability and trust took on new meanings.
Mountain Climbing
Sharon has lived in the Canadian Rockies for nearly twenty years, has worked as a mountain climbing and helicopter ski guide. She climbed Mount Logan, the highest mountain in Canada and has conquered numerous other summits exceeding 20,000 feet around the world.
Mount Everest
Sharon Wood teaches, entertains and inspires with her personal story about reaching the top of Mount Everest. It is a story about a small team that chose a bold vision to climb the highest mountain in the world: by a more difficult route, with fewer physical and financial resources, and in better style.
Team Building Speaker
Sharon effectively conveys both the individual and the team perspective. She emphasizes the importance of striving to realize her own personal aspirations. As well, she talks of her role as a member of a team committed to levering every component of their strategy to realize their vision. Sharon’s style is personal and moving. Through powerful anecdotes and vivid analogies, she conveys the critical elements of her team’s success.
Custom Designed Presentations
Stunning 35mm slides and video taken live from the highest mountain in the world support her presentations. Each presentation is custom-designed to focus on the challenges and themes of her audience.
Sharon Wood Speaking Topics
Everest: To the Summit and Beyond
Sharon Wood teaches, entertains and inspires with her personal story about reaching the top of Mount Everest. It is a story about a small team that shared a bold vision to climb the highest mountain in the world; by a more difficult route, with fewer physical and financial resources, and in better style. Sharon's style is personal and moving. She uses powerful anecdotes and vivid analogies to convey the real-life obstacles and possibilities of achievement. Sharon effectively conveys both the individual and the team perspective. She emphasizes the importance of her own passion while striving to realize her personal aspirations. As well, she talks of her essential role as a member of a team committed to levering every component of their strategy to realize their vision. To the Summit and Beyond is more than just an adventure story it is a timeless, universal story about human struggle and conquest against all odds. Sharon¹s authentic and honest approach evokes listeners to consider their own stories while examining the critical elements that contribute to and define personal and team success. Stunning 35mm slides or PowerPoint images and video taken live from the highest mountain in the world support her presentation.
Take a Risk, Live Life!
Risk is a factor tied to much of what we do. Risk is often the deterrent to acting on what we need to do to live a more fulfilling life. Sharon espouses the value of selective risk taking as a means to experiencing our greater potential. Anticipation of loss, fear and anxiety are feelings most often associated with risk. Sharon conveys the strategies and essential components she has used to push through her fears and barriers. She speaks to preparation, a clear vision, intention and desire as being essential components to minimizing and calculating a risk. Most importantly she speaks to rewards of being a risk taker and winning in life.
The Fear Factor
According to sociologist Michael Clarkson, author of Intelligent Fear, we have 66,000 thoughts a day, two thirds of which are negative or fear based. The most successful remedy for fear has been curiosity, wrote Cambridge historian Theodore Zeldin, "It is only curiosity that knows no boundaries which can be effective against fear." The premise of Sharon's presentation is: Curiosity eclipses fear - our only limitation is our imagination. Through the power of story, she explores some of the essential components of the human condition, risk, fear, curiosity, and the realm of the "profoundly courageous".
Team Power !
A Workshop with Sharon Wood and Marni Virtue. An interactive workshop designed to accompany Sharon Wood¹s Everest presentation In our Team Power! workshop, we provide participants with the opportunity to interpret and discuss key points from Sharon¹s Everest presentation and take what they learn back to their work and personal lives. Our underlying belief is that people have the power to access the solutions and answers they need to become more effective in their professional and personal lives. Our job, in the workshop, is to assist people to tap their power and resources to create the results they want.
Sharon Wood Books
Rising: Becoming the First North American Woman on Everest
Purchase BookSharon Wood Videos
Sharon Wood Speaker Testimonials
Sharon Wood’s journey of reaching the summit of Mt. Everest (via a route no one had ever taken) was a truly inspiring story. The themes around teamwork, personal accountability and perseverance truly parallel not only Bank of America as a whole, but also my team’s immediate environment of achieving greater levels of success in the face of what appears to be unattainable.
- Bank of America |
I have helped organize these events for seven years and Sharon Wood had the greatest positive response we’ve ever had.
- RE/MAX Realty |
You won over a normally skeptical crowd of North American and European bond market players with your compelling and thought provoking tale of achievement through teamwork and sheer determination.
- RBC Capital Markets Inc. |
Sharon gave us one of the most, if not the very most, powerful stories about teamwork we have ever heard. Her genius is in understanding and being able to powerfully articulate how a team must be ready to respond to challenges and opportunities. Her impact on our group was emotionally stunning.
- Canadian Hotel Income Properties |
