EP: 293 Tom French. The Gap Years: Climbing, Skiiing and the way back

["Welcome back to Finding Your Summit! Host Mark Pattison sits down with Tom French, an accomplished mountaineer, adventure athlete, and author whose extraordinary journey from McKinsey senior partner to full-time adventurer embodies the power of reconnecting with your deepest passions at any age. In this inspiring conversation, Tom shares his remarkable story of leaving a 33-year consulting career at age 60 to pursue what he calls "gap years"—extended periods stepping out of the mainstream to rediscover the climbing, skiing, and exploration that made his soul sing in his youth. This episode offers a masterclass in life transitions and authentic living, demonstrating why the most meaningful career move might be stepping away from lucrative opportunities, how childhood influences can shape a lifetime of passion, and why taking time to think and reflect in natural environments unlocks creativity and clarity that no boardroom ever could. Tom opens up about growing up literally crawling around his father's climbing equipment shop where legendary mountaineer Willi Unsoeld taught him to climb, the transformative three-week solo approach to Everest through the remote Makalu Barun region that almost nobody attempts, and the moonlit summit night with just his Sherpa where they had the world's highest peak entirely to themselves.\n\nKey Topics Discussed:\n\nGrowing Up in a Climbing Shop: When Willi Unsoeld Is Your Babysitter\nTom reveals the extraordinary circumstances that shaped his life trajectory from the very beginning. His father owned a camping, climbing, and outdoor equipment shop in Andover, Massachusetts, and the family's version of babysitting was throwing the kids on the floor of the shop to crawl around. Discover how Tom grew up surrounded by climbers who worked in the store specifically because they were climbers, and how the legendary Willi Unsoeld—first American to climb Everest's West Ridge—became friends with his father and taught Tom to climb. Learn about the iconic poster that hung on Tom's bedroom wall showing Unsoeld and Tom Hornbein as tiny dots heading up the West Ridge, looking like astronauts heading to the moon, and why that image represented the ultimate journey that seemed impossibly out of reach for a kid in the 1960s and 70s.\n\nThe Formative Gap Years: Sweden, World Travel, and Three Years Out of Country\nDiscover the pattern that would eventually define Tom's entire approach to life transitions. Between high school and Dartmouth, he spent a year on the Arctic Circle in northern Sweden skiing and exploring. After college, instead of immediately launching a career, he became an expedition tour leader and spent three years traveling the world, climbing and kayaking when he wasn't leading trips. Learn about the remarkable gift his parents gave him—never pressuring him to follow a conventional path, even when he showed up in their living room asking to borrow money for a one-way ticket to Hong Kong with no job lined up. Tom explains why these weren't called gap years at the time, but they were exactly that—formative experiences stepping completely out of the mainstream that shaped who he would become.\n\n33 Years at McKinsey: The Golden Handcuffs and Life After Football\nTom opens up about his three-decade career at McKinsey, one of the world's most prestigious consulting firms, and the unique culture around retirement. Discover McKinsey's unusual model that encourages senior partners to retire between 55 and 60, and the remarkable retreat the firm organized at a palace hotel outside Florence specifically to help departing partners plan their next act. Learn about sitting in that room with 15 peers who were all planning their next CEO role, board positions, or teaching appointments, and the inner voice that told Tom something wasn't right about immediately jumping into another high-pressure role. Hear about the concept of "golden handcuffs"—the fear that your network and credentials are most valuable right now, and if you step away, all the deal flow will dry up and opportunities will disappear.\n\nThe Decision: Choosing Mountains Over Boardrooms at Age 60\nDiscover the pivotal moment when Tom decided to brand his retirement transition as a "gap year" and prioritize reconnecting with the climbing and skiing that had been on hold for decades while building his career and raising his family. Learn why he turned down lucrative client jobs, declined prestigious board positions, and told everyone to call him back in a year or two—a decision that felt risky when his professional relevance seemed to be at its peak. Tom explains the financial privilege that allowed him to make this choice, acknowledging that his lifestyle preferences aligned with relatively modest needs, and why his self-definition wasn't built around income maximization the way it is for some people. Hear about the realization that what he was really afraid of missing out on wasn't money but meaningful opportunities, and the leap