I want to be careful about how I frame this because I am not a therapist and the mountain is not a cure. What I can tell you is that Kilimanjaro did something for my mental health that twenty years of managing depression with medication and therapy had not managed to do. And there is science behind why that might be true.

A responsible operator does not send one guide with ten climbers. The guide ratio matters enormously. At Vertical Sky, our lead guide is supported by assistant guides in a ratio that ensures every climber is properly supervised throughout the expedition.

The most effective CSR is woven into something a company actually does — not declared in a report. A Kilimanjaro expedition with Vertical Sky is exactly this. Here is why it matters more now than ever.

I'll tell you the exact moment I knew the expedition had worked. It was day seven, summit night, 1am, at 5,200 metres — and my leadership team did something that had never happened in our offices. The mountain made it happen.

The best team-building experiences don't happen in conference rooms. They happen at 5,895 metres, where the air is thin, the summit feels impossibly far away, and the only thing that gets your team to the top is each other. A Kilimanjaro corporate expedition with Vertical Sky isn't an away day, it's the experience your team will define themselves by for the rest of their careers.