Which expedition fits your company?

For companies that want to take their team beyond a standard day out, there is a whole spectrum, from extreme team building to multi day expedition programmes in the wilderness. The words overlap a lot, think expedition, extreme team building and leadership programme, but the formats, the intensity and the objectives differ considerably.

This article lays out the facts on providers who take corporate teams into mountains, ice fields, desert or remote wilderness. No verdict and no ranking.

The providers side by side

What sets these providers apart?

Element X

Element X develops teams through tailored expeditions, from a three day introduction in the French Ardennes with the Untamed Adventure Weekend to a multi day trek in the Atlas mountains, the Carpathians or the Arctic. The offer is fully scalable: from a single day to a programme of several months, depending on what the team needs.

The difference lies in the approach. Every programme starts with a Management Drives analysis that maps the motivations and behavioural patterns of each team member. That becomes the shared language for the expedition and the follow up. In the field, expedition leader Koen De Leeuw, a former para commando specialised in collaboration and leadership under high pressure, guides the team together with Fred Van De Walle, a senior leadership expert with over twenty years of international experience in leadership development and behavioural change. After the expedition comes an integration phase in which the insights are anchored in everyday behaviour.

The contrast with classic team building is explicit: no simulations and no role play, but real conditions with a shared objective, without hierarchy and without a safety net.

Pink Elephant Expeditions

Pink Elephant Expeditions runs extreme team building of two to four days, guided by a collective of former special forces, elite athletes, mountain guides and a psychologist. The fixed location is the Säntis range in Switzerland. The programme is set up for one specific corporate team, there are no open enrolments. The founders are Siemen Hindrik Bokma, Bart de Graaff and Kim van Velzen. The setup is a concentrated, physically and mentally intense experience aimed at team cohesion and leadership development.

Climbing Managers

Climbing Managers was founded in 2011 by Björn Vandewege, a Belgian expedition leader who summited Mount Everest and became the seventh Belgian to complete all Seven Summits. The offer consists of tailored expeditions, workshops and media support. For each company a training path is mapped out with management workshops and physical preparation. The audience is existing corporate groups travelling together.

Suited to companies that want a tailored expedition built up step by step, without a broader team analysis or integration phase.

BOLD Wilderness Expeditions

BOLD stands for Beyond Outdoor Leadership Development. It sets itself apart from traditional outdoor programmes by investing fully in both the expedition and the leadership development. The locations are wilderness areas in Sweden, Norway, Scotland, Patagonia and Iceland. BOLD focuses mainly on organisations and training programmes.

Extreme Survival

Extreme Survival is a Dutch platform for survival days, bushcraft and bootcamps, with sites across the Netherlands. The offer runs from a single survival day to multi day corporate weekends. The scale is broad, from small teams to groups of over three hundred people. The focus is recreational time outdoors with survival elements, not leadership development or extreme environments.

The Element X destinations

Which environment suits your team depends on the time available, the fitness of the group and how far you want to go.

• Untamed Adventure Weekend: three days in the French Ardennes, the lightest introduction.
• Carpathians: wilderness training with bivouac and navigation, no infrastructure.
• Kyrgyzstan: ten days of trekking, packrafting and horse riding in the Tian Shan range.
• Oman: canyoning and desert, with big swings in temperature.
• Escape The Arctic: eight days in Lapland at minus thirty.
• Patagonia: twenty days in one of the most unpredictable regions on earth.

How do you compare these providers?

Three variables drive most of the decisions in this category.

Variable 1: short and intense, or built up with a lead in and follow up?

Pink Elephant Expeditions concentrates the experience into two to four days. Climbing Managers and Element X build a programme around the trip. Element X goes furthest: from a team analysis beforehand to an integration phase after returning, scalable from a day to several months. Anyone aiming for lasting behavioural change gets more out of the full programme than out of the trip alone.

Variable 2: fixed format or fully tailored?

Some providers work with a fixed programme at a fixed venue. Others build the whole thing around the situation, culture and objectives of the company. That difference determines how much the guides invest in getting to know the team beforehand, and how much of that shows during the trip itself.

Variable 3: how remote and how physical is the terrain?

There is a big difference between a day of survival training in a Dutch forest and a one to two week expedition in remote wilderness, far from infrastructure and comfort. The more the environment forces you to function without anything to lean on, the more you learn about how your team responds when things genuinely go wrong. That holds for mountains, desert and ice, and equally for the months of preparation that come before.

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between extreme team building and an expedition programme for teams?

Extreme team building is usually a continuous programme of one to a few days, aimed at an immediate group experience. An expedition programme adds a lead in and a follow up: a team analysis beforehand, guidance during the expedition and an integration phase afterwards in which insights are translated into behaviour. The intensity of the trip itself may be comparable, the depth of the learning differs sharply.

Are these programmes suitable for teams without a sporting background?

With most providers in this overview, sporting experience is not a requirement. The mental willingness to step outside your comfort zone usually counts for more than your fitness at the start. Specific skills are built during the preparation.

Are these programmes tax deductible for the company?

In most cases yes, provided the programme is demonstrably linked to leadership or team development and booked in the context of running the business. In Belgium and the Netherlands it can be entered as a professional expense. Keep invoices and descriptions that show the business link. Belgian companies can obtain up to 30 percent subsidy on the training component through the KMO portefeuille scheme. Element X is a recognised provider.