Rebecca Stephens to Lead World Expeditions' Kenya Trek

When we talk about World Expeditions guides who have ‘done it all’, Rebecca Stephens is at the top of the list. She’s climbed Everest and the Seven Summits, she’s journeyed to the magnetic South Pole, and she’s crossed South Georgia, a wild island in the south Atlantic, and she’s a scholar and author.

Few women have accomplished as much as Rebecca and now she’s bringing her wealth of experience and enthusiasm to World Expeditions’ 2023 Mount Kenya trek. She’ll be leading our Mount Kenya and Safari adventure in March, which will spend six days trekking to the top of Point Lenana (4560m) then spend the final night of the adventure at Sweetwaters Serena Luxury Camp in the Ol Pejeta wildlife conservancy.

For Rebecca, the mountains of Africa are a chance to see how high trekkers can go without too much risk.

Rebecca would know about seeing how high you can go. In 1989 she was a London journalist with an assignment to write a story on why climbers climb. She accompanied an expedition to Everest and reached 7,100 metres on the northeast ridge of the mountain. Then and there she realized she could probably make the summit if she wanted to.

She shared her dreams with other climbers and they were happy to help. She began training for a second Everest attempt by climbing in Scotland, the Alps and Alaska.

‘I threw in my job (that was a bit scary) and we headed for Everest in the spring of 1993,’ she said.

She reached the summit with Sherpas Ang Passang and Kami Tchering.

‘It was magical’ she said. ‘And as for being the first female Brit – well, no female Brit had got around to giving it a crack before me.’

Since then she’s taken on arduous journeys in other wilderness arenas, including a traverse of South Georgia Island via Shackleton’s famous survival route. She also competed in an eight-day Eco-Challenge across the Canadian Rockies with polar explorers Ranulph Fiennes and Mike Stroud – the race consisted of running, biking and canoeing.