I quite literally got goose bumps hearing Jeannette’s story. 

The title of this blog may have given away the amazing achievement, but the journey is fabulous too. 

We start with when Jeanette was heading to university, in South Africa, at a time when “I’m going to go to university to find husband” was perfectly acceptable. Not for Jeannette. She got herself a Bachelor of Science (and subsequently completed 4 more degrees!). 

She received a scholarship at University which meant she then headed to the mines to work when she completed her Geology degree. After growing up in a coastal town she moved to the deep level gold mines, a step out of her comfort zone on so many levels! Some of the mines were 4km below the surface. Jeannette was often the first technical woman in the mines, and management had not even told the workers that a woman was joining them! 

“Unfortunately, it’s culturally insensitive in that geography to have women in your workplace. So by the time I’d finished my first shift on the mine, everybody had left. So I effectively created industrial action, they had a strike on the very first day of my job. So to step out of my comfort zone to do this job and then realize that I had impacted everybody in such a way has meant that probably from that grounding in my career, [I learned] to feel comfortable around change, but also realize what impact different change elements can have.” 

Jeannette has since then firmly established her presence within the global mining industry. 

From the deep earth, Jeannette has another passion – high altitude mountaineering. 

Jeanette had one of those moments where she realised her life had become sedentary and she decided to get moving. With her previous mountaineering experience, rather than start jogging or going to the gym, she decided to climb an 8000 metre high mountain! 

The preparation can be equated to preparing for an Olympic Games.  

There are fourteen 8000m mountains in the world, the most recognisable being Mt Everest. 

“All of them go into the death zone. All of them involve using oxygen. All of them involve going through an ice fall. So all the quintessential things that you see in the newspaper around Everest, you have to tackle on any of the 8000 metre mountains. So for a weekend warrior, and a corporate desk jockey like myself, of those fourteen 8000 metre mountains about five of them are realistic for somebody who has a full time job and running a P&L for Telstra. So I picked one of those mountains (it wasn’t Everest for variety of reasons). But yeah, I picked my 8000 meter mountain and I went to Manaslu in 2015 to climb it. 

“Unfortunately, however, one of our Sherpas fell into a crevasse and was injured. Our oxygen was stuck on the high side of it.  And an avalanche just missed my tent. So there was a lot of danger on the mountain that season and I did not successfully climb the Manaslu. So I came back down the mountain.” 

And then “I was offered the job at Telstra, I relocated internationally, I came to Australia. I got sucked into the world of running Telstra Mining Services.” 

But that is not the end. “After working without any leave for 18 months, I actually got asked, what do you do for balance in your life? And I said, well, I have no balance because I’m focusing on running Telstra Mining Services. So yeah, it was encouraged that I go and do my hobby.” 

Jeannette explained that her training was not really confined to weekends, but she was able to be flexible with work to enable her to meet her obligations and get back into training again. 

And 5 years after setting her original goal, Jeannette reached the summit! 

“In September of last year I got to a point where after five years of trying and five years of training and five years of balancing work and jobs and everything I left base camp for my summit push on the 8000 meter mountain. It takes five days. Everything from five years was now distilled down to the next five days.  So on the 28th of September I got up from my tent at 1.30 in the morning, put on the oxygen, all of that, and left base camp.  I walked for five hours during the night and got to the full summit (and then stood in line unfortunately). 

“At nine o’clock on the 28th of September, I became the very first South African woman ever to climb this 8000 meter mountain.  

“The opportunity to look at the world from that elevation and just reflect on how standing there was so far out of my comfort zone. Because, you know, physically it’s in the death zone, you’re on oxygen, the impact that breathing oxygen is having on your body, your brain cells are dying every minute at that altitude. So all of its physically out of one’s comfort zone, but also mentally, the fact that I went from being in a sedentary space to achieving this physical accomplishment, but also stepping out of my comfort zone in terms of standing up for myself and my interest from a work impact perspective.” 

Not surprisingly “Now that I reflect on it, when it’s not five months ago that I did this, if I allow myself to think about it, I do still have a huge amount of pride in myself.” 

Advice for others stepping out of their comfort zone from Jeannette considers breaking goals down into doable pieces.  

“Doing your homework, going online googling, finding a company, finding a friend that will do it with you. It’s really about breaking down something that will push you out of your comfort zone into manageable chunks, and you don’t have to do it the very next day. You can do it at a pace which is going to be comfortable to yourself but nevertheless give yourself a deadline. You know, by the end of the summer I’m going to have been in a sea kayak down the Yarra.” 

“It’s always exciting to be able to be bold and brave and find things that are going to take you out of your comfort zone because only by stretching one’s comfort zone that’s a personal growth occurs and but achieving personal growth you can actually be a better person for your family or friends and ultimately yourself.” 

Thank you Jeannette for sharing your amazing story. 

About Jeannette:

As one of the Global 100 Inspirational Women in Mining (WiMUK) Jeannette is a proven leader with an excellent understanding of the entire mining value chain. Experience obtained both on underground and surface mines, encompasses large and small-scale exploration and production in a variety of commodities and geographies. She has been leading technology programs for Tier 1 producers and is a recognized thought leader on technology disruption for the mining sector. She is currently responsible for Telstra’s critical communications portfolio and associated P&L providing mine site connectivity in private LTE through Telstra Mining Services.

Furthermore through her mountaineering and mining achievements she spends time with local communities in Nepal and Tanzania and is keen to support technology deployments to enhance community development.