MOUNTAINEERING:  Merging is like mountain climbing.  The best prepared and strongest succeed while others fail to reach their objective.  Throughout the Merger Kit, the mountain climbing analogy will cast light on where you are in the journey and what’s required of you as you climb the mountain of merger success.  For deeper context on mountaineering, review the most famous ascent in history which is summarized below.

In 1953, John Hunt led the ninth British expedition through Nepal to Mt. Everest.  The team began the season’s only attempt on the 29,000 foot mammoth and would become the first to summit the world’s largest mountain.

The team invested weeks ascending the dangerous ice fields and chutes to the high base camp at the 25,900 foot high feature on the mountain called the South Col.  On May 26, the climbing pair of Tom Bourdillon and Charles Evans donned their packs and oxygen and climbed onward.  The two were able to reach the South Summit (300 feet short of the peak), but during the climb, Evans’ oxygen system failed.  Becoming exhausted, the duo abandoned the climb and was forced to return to base camp

For two days, wind and snow pounded the base camp at the South Col, where the expedition’s second pair of climbers waited out the storm.  

On May 28, New Zealander Edmund Hillary and Nepal’s Tenzing Norgay began their famous final ascent.  They climbed hard throughout the day before pitching their tent at 27,900 feet. 

The next morning, with 30-pound packs in tow, the twosome climbed toward the summit.  The final challenge faced them – the imposing 40-foot rock face now known as The Hillary Step.

On the morning of May 29, 1953 they successfully bested The Step, and at 11:30 a.m. the climbers reached the summit of the world’s highest peak.  They’d reached the highest point on the planet and done so early enough in the day and in weather that would allow them to descend alive.  After only 15 minutes atop the world, they headed back down.  Being windblown, their foot prints had filled with snow, so the route was difficult to follow.  They carefully chose their way back to base camp.  The rest is history.

CLIMBING WAYPOINTS:  Merging, like mountain climbing, involves careful planning, intentional preparation and expert execution.  Like the many base camps in mountain climbing, there are separate waypoints to reach in the merger process – both in the ascent toward the peak (which is the positive member vote), and in safely getting back down the mountain (to where both organizations are successfully integrated).  The journey’s eight critical waypoints are shown on the home page… (Click Here to View the Kit Waypoints)

At any stage during the process, you are working toward the next waypoint, which provides clarity to your required actions and diminishes what can seem like an overwhelming task.  The waypoints provide more approachable staged desired outcomes.  Each waypoint shows what you’re working toward.  How you reach each waypoint is described in the 27 separate sections of the merger process, shown in the detailed Merger Timeline.