1. Know your goal and its nature: whether it is recreational, a personal stretch, a bonding between team members, revival of the spirit or some thing quite different.

2. Know where you are going, have an up-to-date map and know how to read it.

If no one has been there before, what are the steps for assembling a map of your own?

3. Have a compass and know how to use it.

In your life and business how do you recognize whether you are traveling in the right direction?

4. When there are hazards which are time and temperature sensitive, schedule your journey to start at the most appropriate time.

What situations can you readily foresee in your life and business which will trip you up unless you acknowledge them and act beforehand?

5. Expect the unlikely and have a plan for dealing with it.

Stay flexible to accommodate and handle that one-in-a-million chance which may never have happened before...

6. Be prepared in terms of physical fitness, nutrition, equipment and clothing. It is sometimes wise to take something waterproof even for a walk in the park.

For your endeavors this month, what does being prepared mean?

7. Recognize your ability and know how much of the impossible to bite off at one time....

....spread your journey over the appropriate length of time, allow an adequate safety margin and pace yourself.

8. When trouble occurs, your life may depend on teamwork: how does your team measure up?

When I experienced height sickness, my two companions saved my life - time and time again!

9. When trouble occurs, your life may depend on your equipment.

Is yours up to the job, are you able to use it proficiently and does it have the necessary safety margin?

10. Know when to turn your back on the summit and claim your victory another day....

....and nothing, bar nothing is more difficult!