Above: Branson at the Pitons (Photos: Greg Rose)
By the Caribbean Journal staff
It’s not an easy hike.
In other words, the perfect challenge for the Caribbean’s most famous resident entrepreneur: Richard Branson.
In a post to his company website this week, Branson described his recent hike up the famous Pitons of St Lucia.
Branson, a resident of the private Necker Island in the British Virgin Islands, recently moored his Necker Belle yacht just off St Lucia’s iconic UNESCO World Heritage Site.
“We were playing an early morning game of tennis and stopped to look up at The Pitons, St Lucia’s two beautiful volcanic mountains,” Branson wrote on the Virgin website. “There had been a quick shower just before we began our game and the mist was rising over Gros Piton. It looked absolutely magnificent. As I stared, I wondered: could we climb it?”
Branson and his group said yes.
And after a long hike and after the group’s water ran low, Branson and company scaled the big rock.
“I wasn’t expecting such a steep climb, or such huge volcanic rocks to overcome,” said Branson, whose climbing experience includes time at Mont Blanc.
And it took just two hours.
Gros Piton towers 2,619 feet above sea level.
The move was the latest in the Caribbean for Branson, who has become one of the region’s most famous ambassadors in recent years, from hosting the Necker Cup to creating the Branson Centre of Entrepreneurship.
And Branson continues to chart his Caribbean endeavours in recent months, from saving a Caribbean honeymoon to his famously sharing a LIAT complaint letter in 2013.