Don't try to climb up a steep slope without making sure someone experienced is holding your rope.

Life is short and fragile, and Peter knew it very well. His sister Annie, together with other two alpinists, were left stranded under an ice foot on K2 Mountain in Himalaya because of an avalanche. He didn't give himself up to sadness and melancholy, but decided to go out after them. But the idea of climbing 8000 meters on a distempered weather with below-zero temperatures meant pure suicide. Up there, you don't get to die, you're already dead, especially during a weather like that.

Peter, being himself a climber, immediately put up a rescue team of five people, with the help of whom he go out looking for the missing persons. The greatest problem was that he didn't know exactly the place where the three had disappeared, so they had to go together through ice and rocks. And because none of them knew quite well the mountains, the odds were very low.

Everybody is ready to take action, but not everybody is ready to become a leader

If you watched the movie “Vertical Limit (2000)”, then you definitely remember that their rescue, their main help, their right-hand man – the one whom the entire action was based upon, was none other than Montgomery Wick. He was a fine climber, but a little bit old, to say the truth, but he had done many escalades through time. He had saved people in the mountains on various occasions, being the only climber who knew very well the trails, the only one able to decide, think, and distinguish between the good and the bad, in order for this rescue not to become a real failure. His strong look and stature, his remarkable competences scored along a very long career, made him look like a real fighter, a true survivor, a professional and the only provider of hope. They all listened keenly and followed him.

Every team's achievements and failures are the direct results of the leader's actions. Montgomery Wick weighted out Peter's obligations, even saving his life twice. At the same time, he mobilized the entire team, splitting it into groups of two so that the search would become easier and more accurate, he was the one establishing a certain order, he was the one setting up the team's tempo, encouraging each and every one to seriously involve himself into the action.

Peter, although being a very brave man and having a scarce resolution, wasn't a climber of Montgomery Wick's size. His decision of searching for his sister manifested from the beginning in a determined and impulsive way, he was so determined to find her that he wouldn't have stopped before reaching his goal, he wouldn't cease from troubling till he would have accomplished his objective, and he would have eagerly rushed into the most risky actions.

But, unfortunately, this unyielding will, this wild bravery which defines the monomaniacs, would have driven him in the jaws of death - at the very most he would have lounged away his precious time fighting the wind mills, like Don Quixote. He couldn't have carried out the life saving mission not because he wouldn't have devoted body and soul, but because he lacked the necessary experience in order to undertake some campaigns and especially because, as I previously said, he didn't know the trails, which was vital. He was eager to start the action, but not to complete it. He would have failed if it weren't for Montgomery Wick.

P.S. Sometimes, information isn't enough if there isn't a great experience. That's why the adage “If you wish good advice, consult an old man”, condenses a frequent reality, even considering younger leaders.