Bonita Norris is the youngest person to reach both the summit of Mount Everest and the North Pole. She has climbed several 8,000m peaks, including Everest (8,849m), Lhotse (8,516m), and Manaslu (8,163m), and has attempted to be the first British woman to summit K2 (8,611m).
In just two years, Bonita progressed from having no climbing experience to becoming the youngest British woman to climb Everest. She later became the youngest person to reach Everest and the North Pole, a record she still holds. Her achievements in the adventure world earned her a nomination for Cosmopolitan’s Woman of the Year Award in 2011.
Before her climbing successes, Bonita faced mental health challenges. The lessons learned during her recovery shaped the mindset that enabled her to tackle the world’s highest peaks. Her record-breaking climbs were just the beginning; she has participated in eight expeditions, including those to Manaslu, Lhotse, Ama Dablam, and K2.
Bonita is now a professional speaker, trusted by major corporations, and balances her speaking career with motherhood, raising two young children. Her keynote speech, Mountains of the Mind, motivates teams to achieve challenging goals by sharing teamwork, courage, resilience, and mindset lessons. In 2024, Bonita was awarded Best Speaker Storyteller at The Speaker Awards, a recognition of her ability to combine powerful storytelling with impactful core messages.
In her keynote, Bonita Norris emphasises the importance of cultivating a mindset that fosters success. Drawing from her experience as a beginner climber who conquered Everest, she highlights that the greatest challenges often lie within our minds, such as limiting beliefs and imposter syndrome. Attendees will learn how to build mental toughness, embrace resilience, and trust their journey, with key insights on the value of support, reflection, and focusing on small successes.
In this session, Bonita Norris delves into the relationship between failure and success. She questions whether excellent teams are those who avoid mistakes or those who embrace them as learning opportunities. Bonita shares her personal journey from the summit of Everest to rock bottom and back, illustrating how failure can inspire and strengthen team dynamics. Attendees will learn how to harness failures for greater success and foster a culture of rapid learning.
