John Amatt

A long-time resident of the Canadian Rocky Mountains, John Amatt has been leading expeditions to remote regions of the world for over 35 years, making many first ascents of previously unclimbed peaks.

At the age of 20, Amatt spent two weeks sleeping on tiny ledges while making the first ever climb of Europe's highest and steepest mountain face – the 5,000-foot 'Vertical Mile' Troll Wall in Norway.

Amatt was the leader of an early climbing expedition to Western China, which used camels to approach a 24,757-foot mountain before skiing to the summit.

More recently, he was the principle organizer and a leader of Canada's first successful expedition to reach the top of the world—the 29,028-foot summit of Mount Everest—a climb that was televised live throughout Canada and on ABC's Nightline in the United States.

Building on these experiences, Amatt founded One Step Beyond WorldWide, an innovative educational and motivational company, the mission of which is to encourage people to push beyond their self-imposed limitations, to be more personally accountable for their own actions, and to embrace effective teamwork by valuing the contribution of others.

In his best-selling book, Straight to the Top and Beyond, Amatt uses the metaphor of his own adventures to develop a nine-step approach for scaling the heights in today's unpredictable global environments.