Challenge Week: Real-Life Experience with Community Support

One of the pathways for the balanced development of Mind, Body, and Spirit—Aiglon’s Guiding Principles—is Challenge. Therefore, it is only fitting that during the second week of the academic year, the Junior School, Senior School, and staff explore what this means through a diverse range of activities. Through special events and assemblies, Challenge Week centres our community on the transformative power of embracing challenges, setting an inspiring tone for the year ahead.

From alumni and teachers to a British adventurer and a pioneering Austrian mountaineer, numerous inspiring speakers dedicated their time and knowledge to bring real-life learning to our students.

The Gathering

On Tuesday, the whole school participated in 'The Gathering'.

It was a momentous occasion for the school to celebrate everything that we aspire to be. The theme of the event was focused on an Aiglon value—challenge—and student performances showcased Aiglon’s creative and artistic side.

Aiglon alum Graeme Weston (Belvedere, 1983) recounted a memory of a blizzard during an expedition. "The moment you reach the top of anything, you start down the other side," he stated. "And life is on the climb. In the challenge and the struggle to meet it, and getting up again. Success taught me some things about business. Falling, getting up again, climbing, taught me about life." Having an alum participate in this school event reinforces the link to the school’s rich heritage.

Communal singing is also central to The Gathering. Rather than aiming for formal choral perfection, communal singing at Aiglon is designed around togetherness, joy, and mental well-being. The whole school sang to their heart's content to "Let It Be" and "Ain't No Mountain High Enough".

The School Guardians closed the event with inspiring remarks:

"Challenge isn't necessarily about being the strongest person in the group or never struggling. It's about continuing when things don't go according to plan. And sometimes, you only discover what you're capable of when you're given no choice but to find out.

Aiglon doesn't simply ask us to do more. It asks us to become more. Because challenge isn't about demonstrating that we're already capable. It's about discovering that we are capable of so much more than we thought. This is exactly why Aiglon creates challenges on purpose—because the challenges that we have here are the only ones we will ever get any warning about."

"Signing off, your guardians."

Bear Grylls Returns to the Mountain to Share Survival Tips

On Wednesday, for the second year in a row, Bear Grylls set out into the mountains with our youngest explorers. For a few hours, Bretaye became an interactive terrain where Bear and his Bear Grylls Survival team integrated classroom studies with practical outdoor learning.

Junior School students in Years 2–6 participate in outdoor education through a partnership with the Bear Grylls Survival Academy, coordinated by the Aiglon Mountain School. Established in 2024, this structured programme uses the local alpine environment as a classroom where students learn practical survival skills, build resilience, and develop environmental stewardship in a safe, guided setting.

At the start of the morning, in the pouring rain, all the students huddled together to hear Bear share some life lessons: 

"We at Aiglon, we're different. We're built tough, inside and out. We always respect Mother Nature. You don't respect Mother Nature, she'll teach you a lesson you'll never forget. So we always respect Mother Nature, but we're not scared of Mother Nature. We embrace it.

Some days it's sunny, and we have fun and we swim in the lake. Some days it's raining, and we come to hike. Some days it's going to be hard. You're going to have exams, you're going to have big matches, you're going to have interviews, you're going to be nervous, you're going to be facing the storm, into the rain. And if you're not trained, you don't know how to deal with the tough days of life.

So the point of these, of expedition, is that we walk into the storm, side-by-side, well-prepared, inside and out, but we embrace it.

Remember, 'If it ain't raining, it ain't training'." 

Gerlinde Kaltenbrunner: Pioneering Mountaineer

For our first evening culture event of the academic year, we welcomed Austrian pioneering mountaineer, Gerlinde Kaltenbrunner, to the Moghadam Campus Hub. During a one-hour talk, she shared her extraordinary life story with Year 9–12 students.

On 23 August 2011, upon reaching the summit of K2, Kaltenbrunner became the first woman to climb all fourteen 8,000-metre peaks without using supplemental oxygen or high-altitude porters. She completed all 14 ascents in a strict, self-sufficient style, relying entirely on her own physical endurance and technical skills. Originally trained as a nurse, she funded her early expeditions independently before turning fully professional. In 2012, she was named the National Geographic Explorer of the Year for her historic achievements.

The Aiglon Beckwith Challenge

To conclude the week, ‘The Challenge’ brought the entire school community together to run up the mountain to Bretaye. Seniors tackled a route of approximately 6 kilometres with 650 metres of elevation gain, while juniors completed a tailored shorter route starting at Col du Soud.

A big round of applause to Timur (Year 12), Ellen (Year 12) and Mr Gareth Matthews (Teacher) for crossing the finish line first. 

AI Disclosure: Human-drafted original. Edits supported by AI. All quotes original.