By Lydia Mason, Les Morgan Leader of the Year winner

Leading expeditions has taken me all over the world; brought me face to face with toxic frogs, venomous snakes, and billions of mosquitoes; pushed me up glaciers, along unexplored trails, and down crocodile-infested rivers; forced me to confront fear, self-doubt, and pain. It has also introduced me to the best bunch of people I could hope to meet and opened up a new world of possibility in my life.

By Honor Wilson-Fletcher, British Exploring Society CEO

Our Expeditions produce art and poetry along with masses of science data and film and our Explorers acquire loads of technical skills too. Learning opportunities in the wild aren’t ring-fenced by subject boundaries.

By Honor Wilson-Fletcher, British Exploring Society CEO

If you can’t be sure what’s going to happen next, it’s best to be well prepared to embrace the unexpected. For young people to be ready for the future they now need to be better-than-average at handling risk, dealing with the unknown, and entrepreneurial to boot.

On reflection, my ten years as a volunteer trustee and latterly Chair with British Exploring Society have been one of the most rewarding experiences of my working life.

The Obituaries page has recently been created to acknowledge the contribution and give our condolences to the families of the remarkable Leaders and Members of British Exploring Society who have sadly passed away.

By Honor Wilson-Fletcher, British Exploring Society CEO

Our last Expedition is back safely, we’re pouring over reports, the tents are hanging to dry from Dartmoor, and we’re planning for next year. It must be nearly Christmas.

This autumn, Ellis Brigham Mountain Sports and British Exploring Society have partnered to present ‘Tales Of Endurance’ - an unmissable series of talks from three BES alumni focusing on overcoming challenges, exploration and adventure.

By Honor Wilson-Fletcher, British Exploring Society CEO

At British Exploring Society trust is central to our work and to the expedition programmes we run. It’s a very special gift from the volunteers and other professionals we work with. We depend on the people around us doing what they say they are going to do. We rely on integrity and the reliability of our volunteers and partner organisations. It’s a liberating, enabling environment to work in – but it’s also critical to our success as a youth development organisation interested in preparing young people for positive adult lives.

By Honor Wilson-Fletcher, British Exploring Society CEO

The often-intangible sum of our attributes as an organisation; our name, history, reputation, what we do, and the way we talk about and present ourselves is what would generally be called our ‘brand’. It includes everything which distinguishes us, and could also be described as our ‘DNA’. We are represented by large numbers of friends, volunteers, members, partners and participants, so it is obviously important that this DNA is accurate.

We continue, as we have always done, to prepare young people for expeditions to remote locations where they face challenges, acquire outdoor skills and learn about themselves. But since publishing our headline strategy, Advance and Ascend, we have started to make good progress reaching new audiences, working with more young people and becoming more inclusive. There is now a growing mismatch between what we do and how we describe what we do.

By Honor Wilson-Fletcher, British Exploring Society CEO

So, what is it that’s fundamentally different about what we do? Our ethos, values, approach and the level of challenge we provide are all distinctive – but these will only really be obvious with hindsight.

Lots of young people are being asked to take on debt and make big, rational decisions with long-term consequences. So, I thought I’d focus on the major practical differences which mark us out from commercial providers of overseas experiences for young people which might be more helpful to a young person trying to decide what to do: