This isn’t immediately apparent, especially if you’re out looking specifically for information regarding her climbing career. DeshunDeysel does speaking for a number of groups and gatherings, including the I Can Foundation back in 1996, the GIBS Women Empowered Forum and more.
This one might come as a surprise, especially to those who have seen plenty about Deshun’s successful mountaineering career. While she did manage to come within 550 meters (1,804 feet) of the mountain’s 8,850-meter (29,035-foot ) summit, she has never climbed to the highest point on Mount Everest.
Failing to make the summit of Everest seems like such a small thing when you realize just how many mountains Deysel has managed to top. These include Mount Meru and Mount Kilimanjaro (twice) in Tanzania, Kala Patar in Nepal, Mont Blanc in France, and the South Base Camp of Mount Everest (17,590 feet).
Because she has a speaking career, it only makes sense that Deysel should have a few top quality speeches to share with audiences. Her most famous speech of all is “From Couch Potato to Mountaineer,” (check it out here on Youtbe) in which she talks about what it’s like to be a woman in an arena traditionally dominated by men. “I’m sure you’ve got mountains in your life also,” she said addressing police women. “They’re probably not physical mountains but…you probably face 100 mountains every day.”
DeshunDeysel is unique in the respect that she is the only African American woman to become a mountaineer and tackle the world’s tallest piles of rock, dirt, sand and ice. Being one-of-a-kind has done wonders to make her face recognizable, especially in her home continent of Africa.
It’s hard to find real people who are larger than life, but Deysel is one. Her aspirations and hard work have been the inspiration behind the decision of many young people from South Africa and elsewhere on the continent to start climbing mountains. Inspired by
In her “couch potato” speech, Deysel said, “Back in apartheid South Africa a young kid from the townships deciding she wants to climb Everest one day — can you imagine how ridiculous that sounded to anybody? But through God’s grace I was able to hold onto that
idea.” In 1995 she said she saw an advertisement in the newspaper looking for South African women to be on the first team to plant the South African flag on the top of Mount Everest. Though she didn’t officially make it to the peak of Mount Everest, back in 1996, Deshun Deysel was part of the team that planted the new democratic flag of South Africa on the summit of Mount Everest. It stands there still, a testament to the men and women who helped end apartheid.
Despite being a successful teacher, climber and motivational speaker, Deshun Deysel has no children of her own, Deysel delights in caring for her two cats, both of which must certainly miss her when she goes out for her climbs.
Since 2008, Deysel has been concentrating on her speaking career. After twice coming so close to making her main goal of summiting Everest, she’ll probably never be ready to give up that dream. She says she is inspired by Marianne Williamson, a spiritual activist and founder of The Peace Alliance, a grass roots campaign supporting legislation to establish a U.S. Department of Peace. Deysel often quotes Williamson’s famous words: “Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us…There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you…as we let our own lights shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”
After climbing for more than 15 years, Deshun Deysel has been a high-altitude mountaineer on five continents, participating in 14 major expeditions. She’s one of the world’s most worldly women when it comes to traveling to the world’s highest places powered by her own body.
