About Chessell Adventures - Company History

DCXP – Where have we come from?

It all began with a one man mountain guiding service when, having worked for a number of international guiding companies, Duncan Chessell was asked to lead a small group of friends and contacts on a remote trek in Nepal. That first year we had fun, ran just one expedition, took lots of photos for Névé Images and began to think of a future of international guiding as a lifestyle business. Duncan's wife Jo Arnold helped to keep the information flowing and acted as assistant guide on many expeditions in the early years.

Largely by word of mouth and through our original website the number of expeditions increased, the number of participants increased, and the amount of field and administration support all increased. We built a better and better website and refined our adventures to provide what we thought was the best combination of features. They always included good leaders, good food and the best possible itinerary - balancing time available with the time needed to give a good chance of success.

Having an Adventurer for a director has meant that we have run many 'exploratory' or 'one-off' and even 'first ever' expeditions for groups: a high traverse from the Makalu-Barun into the Khumbu Valley; Ama Dablam in winter; the Footsteps of Mallory traverse between Rongbuk and the Kangshung Everest Base Camps; a yacht expedition to climb on the Antarctic Peninsula;  international Three Peaks expedition to climb the highest points in North America, Eastern and Western Europe; and the first ever 'Sea to Summit' ascent of Antarctica's highest peak, Mount Vinson from sea level. These are adventures mainly for experienced clients and adventuring friends where the outline is clear, the preparation is in place, but the final details are figured out based on what we find on the ground. The success rate of these expeditions to date has been impressively high.

In 2001, after a serious amount of training at home, in New Zealand and in Nepal, fund raising and working as a geologist in the oil industry, and intense expedition planning and implementation, Duncan and his friend Mark Auricht set off on an Everest Expedition and Duncan became the first South Australian to climb to the roof of the world. The rest of the year was a whirlwind that included many presentations to expedition sponsors and interested parties.

In the Himalayan Autumn of 2002 Duncan and Jo ran Chessell Adventures expeditions to Lhakpa Ri and the first Footsteps of Mallory remote high altitude traverse between the two Tibetan Everest Base Camps: Rongbuk and the Kangshung Face; a Himalayan Three Peaks Expedition, an Ama Dablam expedition; and a Mera Peak expedition.

Early 2003 saw us on Aconcagua expedition and embarking on our first Antarctic Peninsula voyage. It was a big year and marked a turning point for the company.

In 2003 DCXP Mountain Journeys Pty Ltd was incorporated and moved from our spare room into an office upstairs on Adelaide's café and outdoor equipment strip – Rundle Street. Demand required that we employ extra guides to taking over some of the international guiding work. Together with Perks Business Services and Darren Williams,
DCXP ran a business Leadership Development Course which culminated in a successful trek of the Kokoda Track.

In 2004 DCXP arranged the inaugural Centacare Kokoda Trek for the charity group and late that year Jo began to work in the office so as to manage the expeditions to 5 continents that we ran in 2005. At the end of 2005 after nearly 4 years of solid field work, Duncan was then somewhat ‘free’ to direct operations from HQ and to appoint new support staff and services.

In 2006 we ran expeditions to all 7 continents culminating on Mount Vinson with the first ever climb from sea level to the highest point in Antarctica on 1 January 2007. In 2007 DCXP ran the most successful Australian Everest Expedition ever, which included two of our office staff – Leader Duncan Chessell, and Katie Sarah as an over-achieving team member (her understated goal was to reach the North Col to ‘see how she went!’).

In addition to Kokoda treks for individuals, DCXP continued to operate Centacare’s annual Kokoda trek as well as successful treks for schools, business and family groups. DCXP’s association with Perks Business Services also continued and in December a very happy group of Australian businessmen reached the summit of Nepal’s highest trekking peak – Mera Peak. By the end of the year we had run expeditions in 5 countries and 4 continents.

2008 was another biggie! We ran our own customised wilderness first aid course, moved to larger office premises, and set up from scratch our trekking outfitter in Papua New Guinea to manage our local staff, training and logistics. We also instituted what seems to be the first formal training for PNG-based Kokoda guides in a decade.