Korean Re’s photo exhibition at the Korean Re Gallery in downtown Seoul displays memorable moments of its 24-member expedition team’s recent successful scaling of Mt. Everest-Kala Patthar. The photos were taken by photographer Lee Han-gu, recognized for having photographed more than 1,000 villages in Korea as well as Korean and foreign mountains, including Mt. Everest.

The photo exhibition, titled “The Way to the Top,” was launched July 6 and will run until Dec. 31. The theme indicates not only the expedition team’s overlooking the summit of Mt. Everest from Kala Patthar, but also Korean Re’s aim to become a global top five reinsurance company by 2020. 

The exhibition is divided into the first hall, subtitled “Landscape,” and the second hall, subtitled “Human documentary.” The first hall displays photos concerning the journey to Mt. Everest-Kala Patthar and the second hall shows photos of the expedition team reaching the summit and their way down from Mt. Everest-Kala Patthar.

This past April the expedition team undertook a fifteen-day, 140km trek up Kala Patthar, one of the mountains in the Nepalese Khumbu Himalayas. The photos show moments from the long and hard expedition, with its many dangers, such as severe cold and altitude sickness.

An opening ceremony was held at the photo gallery on July 6. Many corporate executives from the financial world and high-ranking government officials attended the ceremony, including Kang Man-soo, ex-minister of the Ministry of Strategy and Finance (MOSF) and Korea Development Bank CEO Yoon Jeung-hyun. Former MOSF Minister Kang and Rajahram Vatola, a Nepalese consul serving in Korea, gave congratulatory speeches to mark the company’s successful climb and the opening of the exhibition. 

Park Jong-won, Korean Re’s CEO, led the expedition team that completed the ascent of Mt. Everest-Kala Patthar, a 5,550-meter-high peak, from April 13-27. They reached the summit within ten days of setting out. In encouraging his employees to be goal-oriented and ambitious, Park said, “Even though we encountered such physical challenges as altitude sickness, the fact that we finished our journey together will serve as an emblem of our company’s bright future.”

Korean Re also used the opportunity to sign an agreement to fund the construction of a hospital ward at the “Toto White Hospital,” which is situated in Chepulung, the last village on the ascent toward Mt. Everest.

The scaling of Kala Patthar was not the first time that Korean Re had taken to the mountains. Over the past eight years, its employees also completed the crossing of the Baekdu mountain range in South Korea. The company’s unique corporate culture became such a topic of conversation that their story was made into a documentary that was shown on the Korean Broadcasting System.