Jort van Dalen, Ruben de Vries, Leonardo Taroni, and Jim van Ramshorst are first-year students in International Business Management Studies (IBMS). They are in a project group together. Their first ideas for the assignment were to organise the largest BBQ ever held in the Netherlands or to recreate a TV commercial. Their lecturer encouraged them to think bigger.

Enthusiastic response

Ruben says, “Our lecturer is a climber and was immediately enthusiastic when we came up with this idea. Our idea was to have two of us train and practice climbing and have the other two work on promoting our project and use social media. At first our lecturer thought this task division would lead to arguments, but that wasn’t a problem: Jort and Jim were the only ones who wanted to do the actual climbing.”

The Mont Blanc is 4810 metres high and is a difficult trek, even for experienced climbers. Athletes Jort and Jim wanted to make the climb, but only under the supervision of a good guide. They were able to get Jelle Staleman to help them make their journey to the peak and back down again. Just before the departure date, Jim had to back out as his parents decided they wanted him to focus on his studies.

The plan

Jort, together with a friend from his rowing club, Fernando Lasso (who studies at Erasmus University), left for Geneva on Friday the 17^th, from where they would travel to the base camp in Chamonix. There they will receive some final training before beginning their climb on the 23^rd of June. Jort says, “We’ll leave in the middle of the night; the alarm is set for 2 a.m. Depending on the weather conditions, it will take approximately 10-13 hours to complete the climb and return to the base camp. Two-thirds of the way in, we will reach the peak and plant the flag. After that, we’ll descend at a calm pace. Most accidents occur on the way back down.”

Fernando will film the entire journey with his GoPro camera. The images will be made into a promotional film for RBS. This project will surely express the Rotterdam University of Applied Science’s slogan “Exceed Expectations” in a spectacular way. RBS Dean Cees van der Kraan has high expectations for this dynamic duo (and their video) and has sponsored the project in the form of equipment and the guide.

Follow the men!

Do you want to follow Jort and Fernando on their trek to the top of the Mont Blanc? Expedition 4810 is their Facebook page and there they’ll share all their adventures. If they have reception, they’ll even go live when they plant the flag!

Tosca Sel