Alex Harris: Adventure Speaker
Extreme adventurer and mountaineer Alex Harris summited Everest, walked unsupported to the South Pole and crossed the Empty Quarter, inspiring resilience and peak performance.
- Highlights:
- Summited all 7 peaks
- Completed an unsupported expedition to the South Pole
- Led the first unsupported crossing of the Empty Quarter
- Founder of The Munga ultra endurance race
- Formats:
Keynote Speaker and Extreme Adventurer
- Audiences:
Executive leadership teams, sales organizations, high performance cultures, corporate conferences and strategy offsites seeking resilience and peak performance frameworks.
- Outcomes:
- Practical frameworks for resilience and endurance under pressure
- Strategies for goal setting, preparation and disciplined execution
- Inspiration to embrace uncertainty and pursue ambitious objectives
- Travels from: Dallas, TX
- **Fee range: $10,000 - $15,000
Keynote Topics
Making the IM possible!
Facing Your Own Everest
Over a period of nine years Alex has spent 180 days on Mount Everest, leading teams in varying conditions before he finally succeeded summiting in 2005. Alex relates the trials and triumph of what it’s like to fight doubt and disbelief on the icy slopes of the world’s highest mountain, before finally tasting the sweetness of success.
Alex’s message is simple. Each one of us will one day face our own personal Everest. It might not be 8848ms of ice and snow, but whatever it is, our ability to overcome self-doubt and disbelief will allow us to taste success. Focusing on Passion, perseverance and that illusive thing called Purpose, this talk will change your perspective on what are the things that really challenge us.
The Commodity of Belief – the Fuel for Future High Performance
Alex has spent the last 20 years leading groups of executives and high performance teams on some of the world’s more challenging terrain; from the slopes of Kilimanjaro to the high plateau of Tibet and the wastelands of Antarctica. During this time he has noticed a very subtle but consistent theme. Irrespective of the challenge, the teams and individuals that have thrived and succeeded, and have consistently tasted success; have had one thing in common. Incredibly high levels of self-belief.
Alex describes the particulars of what gives these teams and individuals such high self-belief; from the process of ‘trading’ belief, like any other commodity, to creating and adding to a ‘belief pool’. Key to this process in understanding the concepts of positive and negative cycles of belief, and what we can do to shift from one to the other. Alex shares anecdotes and incredible pictures from the slopes of Everest to the icy cold of Antarctica to the desperate heart of the Arabian Desert.
This talk will empower you and give your team an unbeatable competitive edge. If you are wanting to know what the future differentiator is for high performance teams; it’s this. Self-belief and a set of skills to gradually increase your belief pool and make your competitors irrelevant!
Talent Short Bio
Alex Harris is one of the world’s most accomplished extreme adventurers, mountaineers and ultra endurance athletes. Born and raised in South Africa, he built a career defined by bold goals, disciplined preparation and the relentless pursuit of what many consider impossible.
He has summited Mount Everest, completed an unsupported expedition to the South Pole and led the first ever unsupported crossing of the Arabian Desert’s Empty Quarter, also known as the Rub’ al Khali. These landmark achievements required extraordinary physical stamina, meticulous planning and unwavering mental resilience in some of the harshest environments on Earth.
In addition to his polar and desert expeditions, Alex is a record breaking cyclist and the founder of The Munga, one of the toughest ultra endurance mountain bike races in the world. His experiences navigating isolation, uncertainty and extreme risk have shaped a powerful philosophy centered on preparation, accountability and mental clarity under pressure.
Today, Alex translates his expeditions into compelling keynote presentations delivered on five continents. He challenges organizations and leaders to embrace adversity, raise their performance standards and cultivate resilience as a strategic advantage in high pressure environments.
Read Full Bio
Alex Harris is one of the world’s most accomplished extreme adventurers and an ultra-endurance athlete who has summited Everest, walked unsupported to the South Pole, and completed the first ever unsupported crossing of the Arabian Desert’s Empty Quarter.
A record-breaking cyclist and founder of The Munga, he inspires audiences to embrace challenge, resilience, and peak performance through keynotes delivered on five continents.
Alex Harris hailing from the enchanting landscapes of South Africa, Harris has carved his legacy as an esteemed mountaineer and extreme athlete. His remarkable feats include leading a groundbreaking expedition that achieved a world-first: traversing the daunting expanse of the Empty Quarter (Rub’ al Khali) in the Arabian Peninsula, all without external support. With an insatiable thirst for pushing boundaries and defying the odds, Harris exemplifies the epitome of human resilience and exploration.
Born and raised amidst the rugged terrain of South Africa, Harris developed an early affinity for adventure and the great outdoors. His passion for mountaineering ignited during his formative years, propelling him towards a life dedicated to conquering some of the world’s most formidable peaks. Through rigorous training and unwavering determination, Harris honed his skills, eventually earning recognition as one of the world’s foremost mountaineers.
Alex Harris’s expertise extends beyond traditional mountaineering, encompassing a diverse array of extreme athletic pursuits. From navigating treacherous terrains to enduring harsh climates, he possesses a wealth of experience in pushing the boundaries of human endurance. Whether scaling towering summits or traversing unforgiving deserts, Harris thrives in environments where most would falter, showcasing his unparalleled resilience and determination.
With a string of awe-inspiring accomplishments to his name, Alex Harris has cemented his status as a trailblazer in the realm of extreme exploration. His groundbreaking expedition across the Empty Quarter stands as a testament to his unwavering resolve and pioneering spirit. By leading a team to achieve the unprecedented feat of crossing this formidable desert unsupported, Harris etched his name in the annals of exploration history.
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Talent Videos
Alex Harris – Adventure Speaker Showreel
A compelling 5-minute, 17-second showcase of Alex Harris’s extreme expeditions, leadership lessons and powerful message on courage, resilience and pursuing audacious goals.
Read Summary & Key Moments
Summary
This 5-minute, 17-second adventure showreel presents Alex Harris’s story as one of grit, curiosity and relentless pursuit of the extraordinary. He opens by reflecting on his childhood in Johannesburg, describing himself as a restless, adventurous kid who was always drawn to the unknown. He jokes that becoming a Jedi Knight wasn’t realistic, so he followed the passions that felt inevitable—passions that would take him to some of the most remote and hostile environments on earth.
The video cuts through visual moments of expeditions as he describes climbing the seven highest peaks on the world’s seven continents: Kilimanjaro, Aconcagua, Elbrus, Vinson, Carstensz Pyramid, Denali and Everest. His narration emphasises both the physical demand and the deep sense of purpose that drives him from one challenge to the next.
Alex then recounts one of his most extreme undertakings: crossing the Rub’ al Khali—the Empty Quarter—the largest sand desert in the world. The desert had never been crossed unsupported, and as soon as he learned that, he knew it would be his next challenge. Alongside Marco Riccardo and David Joyce, he undertook a 40-day, 1,200 km journey pulling a 400 kg cart across blistering sand. He describes the relentless heat, temperatures nearly 10 degrees hotter than expected, and the constant obsession with water as they pushed through sandstorms, twisted ankles and quicksand.
As the footage alternates between vast dunes and candid moments of exhaustion, Alex speaks about the mental toll of the expedition—days when the enormity of what remained felt overwhelming and moments when the team was physically broken. Yet he highlights how three very different individuals were forged into a unified team through shared hardship. Their belief grew strong enough to carry them to the finish.
Key Moments
- 00:35 – Reflects on choosing adventure as a calling and showcases his Seven Summits achievements.
- 01:20 – Introduces the Empty Quarter mission and outlines the challenge.
- 02:10 – Details the extreme conditions: heat, sandstorms, thirst and physical strain.
- 03:10 – Explores teamwork, psychological resilience and moments of breaking and rebuilding.
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