Mountaineering was a childhood dream for Deshun Deysel, which she achieved in 1996. Deshun was a member of the first team of South Africans who placed the new South African democratic flag at the top of Mt. Everest. The media described her as the first black woman in the world and the youngest South African to set foot on the slopes of Mount Everest.
She grew up in South Africa during the apartheid era in a small township outside of Uitenhage in the Eastern Cape. Her grandmother's recollections of the exploits of Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay who were the first to officially summit Mt. Everest in 1953, stimulated her dreams of becoming an adventurer.
She has always been sporty enjoying open water swimming, cycling, running, and she played provincial volleyball in high school and college.
But mountaineering became her first love. After her participation in the 1996 expedition, Deshun participated in climbing expeditions to five of the seven summits on five continents: Mt. Mckinley in North America, Mt. Elbrus in Europe, Aconcagua in South America, Mt. Kilimanjaro in Africa and she attempted to summit Everest again. She has successfully guided teams up Mt. Kenya, Mt. Kilimanjaro and smaller South African peaks, and she has also summited Mt. Meru (Tanzania), Mt. Blanc (France) and Mt. Kalapathar (Nepal).
She was to be part of an all women South African expedition which planned to climb Everest in 2020 but unfortunately Covid-19 put a halt to their plans.
Deshun Deysel is CEO of GoPeak International which consults to and coaches clients mainly in the small to medium business space. She is also a motivational speaker. In her business https://www.gopeak.biz/ Deshun uses metaphors from her 25 years of climbing experiences to high light the challenges that entrepreneurs will face trying to get to the top.
Deshun lives in Johannesburg with her husband Charles and their two children, Edward and Judith. At the age of 50 she is still highly driven. She plans on growing her business, writing books and climbing more mountains.