The inspiring story of the only blind person to climb Mount Everest and the rest of the world\'s highest peaks.

1. INSPIRATION
Scaling
Greatness
Vision in the Face of Adversity
Erik Weihenmayer is the first and only blind person to reach
the highest point on the planet, the summit of Mount Everest.
However, this astounding achievement is just the tip of the
iceberg. Nick Rice reports on a man whose lack of sight does
nothing to affect his extraordinary vision.
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2. INSPIRATION
than someone with the same condition standing on
top of the world?
Several mountaineers and experts advised against
the attempt in as much as Everest represents one
of the world’s greatest physical challenges. Many
adventurers perish in the struggle to the top and
90 per cent of those who attempt to get there fail. Yet
on May 25, 2001, in spite of the glut of naysayers,
Weihenmayer stood proudly with 18 of his friends
and teammates on Everest’s summit, setting a world
record not only as the first blind person to ever reach
it but also for being part of the greatest number of
climbers to reach the top in one day.
All climbers face a multitude of life-threatening
risks on Everest that range from severe oxygen
deprivation to avalanches, falling ice blocks and sheer
drops. Weihenmayer braves these perils and climbs
independently with his teammates, who assist him
only by attaching bells on their backpacks for direction
s his footing gave way on the shredded ice and he and with verbal warnings for terrain decriptions.
found himself hanging over a 3,000 foot drop in the “My partners know me well. They don’t give me
Himalayas, Erik Weihenmayer (Wine-mayor) feared help when I want it, but only when I need it. That’s an
the worst. The blind mountaineer was dangling over important distinction, and to me, the sign of a good
the sheer precipice of Lhosar, a frozen waterfall in the friend. Chris Morris, a partner and guide, gives me
Khumbu Valley near Mount Everest. important verbal communication. Once, I had to jump
“With my body hanging from two sharp tools across a raging river from an ice platform seven feet
stuck in the ice, I felt like my arms were being across to another snow platform. Falling in the freezing
ripped from their sockets,” he recalls. glacier-fed river would mean death. Chris jumped
“Then the metal front points of my crampons across first and gave me all the information. Then, he
skittered out from under me; one of my tools popped stood right on the edge to grab me if my jump was
out of the crumbling ice and I found myself hanging off the mark. Jeff, another partner, has a grim sense of
by one arm. By furiously hammering my tool back into humour. He’ll say, ‘narrow rocky trail, death fall to the
the ice and kicking like crazy, I finally got re-attached left. If your going to fall, fall to the right.’ Everyone has
and after another hour of desperate climbing, the a different style of guiding.”
steepness finally let up and I rounded the top.” What they cannot prepare him for are such
This fraught and rare ascent was yet another eventualities as being trapped by a storm and spending
astonishing achievement from the American who a week stuck in a small tent on a 20,000 foot
made his name as the only blind person to climb ledge, as happened on his first attempt at
Mount Everest. summiting Mount Mckinley in Alaska
Marc Maurer, on that occasion President of the when he was just 26. This is where a
National Federation of the Blind in the US, provided climber’s essential trait of sturdy
the $250,000 expedition fees, knowing that Erik was mental strength is tested. In
a powerful modern-day symbol of what blind people this regard Weihenmayer
had the potential to achieve. Weihenmayer could show has the utmost respect
that, to use the words of his hero and enduring icon, and admiration of
Helen Keller – “The greatest things can’t be seen or his peers. “Erik is
even touched. They must be felt with the heart.” mentally one of the
Weihenmayer, 40, sees his mountaineering not only strongest guys you
as a personal passion, but also as encouragement for will ever meet,”
all those who have been subjugated by a difference says Morris.
or a disability. And what better possible example and Weihenmayer
encouragement is there for every blind person alive has conquered
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3. INSPIRATION
Previous page: the highest peak on every continent. As he stood based on the theory that hardship can be harnessed
Weihenmayer climbing
triumphant on top of Mount Kosciusko in Australia to “propel yourself forward to places that you might
at dusk in Thailand.
Top: Weihenmayer
on September 25, 2002, he had completed his seven- not have gone to in any other way”. This is not
stands above clouds year quest to climb all seven peaks, becoming the a conventional self-help book with a contrived,
on the summit of only blind person to ever do so. formulaic and often glib recipe for harmony and
Mount Cook in
New Zealand. In August last year he conquered an eighth happiness – the message is to embrace adversity
mountain, the 16,023 foot Carstenz Pyramid in and make tough decisions.
West Papua Province, Indonesia. This addition to the With specific reference to the global economic
traditional Seven Summits is the world’s highest island situation, Weihenmayer recommends that people
peak. Many expert mountaineers count Austral-Asia as adjust and re-examine their priorities. “In one of
a continent and, due to the remoteness and technical the chapters we talk about a concept we call pack
difficulty of Carstenz Pyramid, see it as the true light. That’s a really applicable subject at this time,
seventh. Less than 100 mountaineers have completed because we’re all talking about scaling back right
this version of the Seven Summits. now. Society teaches us to be consumers, and we’ve
It is difficult for a sighted person to comprehend let that consumerism distract us from our goals, our
the enormity of Weihenmayer’s achievements, many dreams. So we talk about packing like a climber. You
of which are beyond the scope of most people. They can’t carry everything you want up a mountain. And
are awe-inspiring accomplishments, which truly as you get higher up the mountain, it gets harder and
push the boundaries of mankind’s capabilities. you have to basically drop stuff.”
These conquests have not come easily and Weihenmayer is aware that people often shy away
Weihenmayer is no stranger to gut-wrenching from difficult choices. “You have to drop a lot of those
decisions and great hardship. Now a highly sought materials that you thought were the things that defined
after motivational speaker, he dedicates a great deal of you. You have to strip yourself down so you’re more
his life to helping others change their destiny by using nimble and more ready to take on adversity to achieve
adversity as a vital part of moving forward in life. what you want. That’s a hard choice for people.
“It’s really about taking bad things and making them “Adversity is one of those things that you never ask
into good things,” he says. “And a lot of times you for. But when it happens and you look back you often
have to go through adversity in order to do that. But realise that you didn’t just survive it. It made you better
you can’t tell people to just walk into a storm, because and stronger in certain ways. It’s not like we’re saying
if they do they’ll get crushed. It’s like climbing a be a sadist and ask for adversity. But adversity hits you
mountain. You can’t just go climb a mountain without in life and you have a choice. It either destroys you,
the right skill and the right preparation.” it stops you in your tracks, or you figure out a way to
His book, The Adversity Advantage, co-authored harness it and use that energy to go forward in your
with renowned researcher and author Paul Stoltz, is life. And if you do it right, sometimes you go farther
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4. than you’d go without the adversity.” than beating it. This didn’t happen in a sudden Above: Weihenmayer
In that respect, you can rest assured he is speaking epiphany. He admits to being painfully stubborn and makes precarious steps
across an unforgiving
from experience. going through a period of denial. abyss on Everest.
Weihenmayer was born with a rare eye disease called “I hated blindness, it was like a storm that was Top left: With his
retinoschisis, and he went blind at the age of 13. At descending upon me with such force, with such father Ed, who
often joins him on
that formative moment when most teenage boys are viciousness, that I thought I’d be crushed by it. expeditions and
preoccupied with the opposite sex, identity and a Don’t ask me how a person, when they go blind, works as his full-time
manager. Their work
million other more trivial matters, Erik was plunged can somehow try to deny that they’re blind. But
together has drawn
into darkness. Just two-and-a-half years later his eventually your brain accepts it. widespread media
mother died in a tragic car accident. “I accepted blindness after I tumbled down a few coverage and a
congratulatory visit
His father Ed, an ex-Marine, says: “I marvel at how sets of stairs and fell off a dock. I realised ‘you’ve got to the Oval Office.
Erik handled these two body blows – total blindness to learn to live as a blind person’.” Bottom left:
and the loss of his mum – to emerge as someone who Erik eventually became philosophical about his loss Weihenmayer making
a first-ever ascent on
so powerfully motivates people to squeeze the most life and accepted what he refers to as the ‘what is’ of his
a 2,000 foot ice climb
out of their God-given potential.” situation. His blindness was unchangeable. When he in Nepal that he named
Weihenmayer went on to triumph against odds accepted his condition and resolved to do what he ‘Arjun’s playground’
after his adopted son.
and obstacles by finding something positive in the could with what he had, he got his life back.
events that befell him. He knew he couldn’t eliminate But he also dared to believe there was something
blindness; there would be no denying it. His great inside him that was stronger than circumstance.
success has been through accepting blindness rather After learning to use a cane and read Braille,
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5. INSPIRATION
“It’s really about taking bad things
Weihenmayer discovered wrestling. Basketball and places like Papua New Guinea, Pakistan, Tajikistan Top left: Weihen-
baseball were clearly out but wrestling relies on and Machu Picchu. mayer preparing
to cross a wide and
balance, strength and the shifting of weight to gain “The reason we went on these treks,” says Ed, treacherous cre-
the advantage. “had almost nothing to do with Erik being blind and vasse on Everest;
He was terrified of being shunted aside in life and everything to do with trying to enhance cohesiveness Top right: Weihen-
mayer is an accom-
the sport was his first route back into the thick of for the family, which we were in danger of losing after plished paraglider,
things. Slamming sighted kids into the mats proved Ellen died. She had been the glue.” marathon runner,
he was equal with his peers. Weihenmayer excelled Out of this tragedy a passion was born. Weihen- acrobatic skydiver,
skier, long distance
at it, eventually attending national championships mayer progressed from trekking to climbing and fell cyclist, champion
and becoming a coach. in love with pioneering his way to the top, treating wrestler and scuba
diver. Here he
It was while he was at a training camp that he the rock face like a puzzle. His wiry and powerful enjoys some surfing
learned about the loss of his mother. frame earned him the nickname ‘monkey boy’ from in Maui;
His father recalls the awful moment when he had to his climbing camp instructors. Bottom right: Erik
break the news to his son. “Erik’s mom Ellen was killed He continued to climb whenever he could while with teammates
on the summit of
in a car accident in 1985 when he was 16. His brother studying English and Journalism at Boston College. Mount Everest,
Eddi and I had the awful task of going to the camp to Upon graduating and despite a discouraging blind one of the most
successful ascents
tell him the tragic news. When he heard our voices, he unemployment rate of 70 per cent, Erik took a job in history;
thought we had come up a day early to see the final teaching middle school in Phoenix. Bottom left: An
wrestling competition.” There he fell in love with the woman who is now his acrobatic skydiver,
Ed pulled the family together by taking Erik and wife, coincidentally named Ellen. An English teacher Erik has completed
over 50 solo jumps.
his brothers on trekking adventures in far-flung working at the same school, they married in 1997 at
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6. INSPIRATION
in the native Athabascan language, Denali, meaning
‘Great One’ – the highest point in North America.
Standing at more than 20,000 feet and prone to fierce
and unpredictable storms, it was no light undertaking.
Erik gives a gripping account of the climb in his
autobiographical book, Touch the Top of the World.
Denali was Weihenmayer’s first continental summit
and the beginning of his monumental achievement
of conquering all seven. With his ‘rope team’ of
close friends and professionals and with heroic
determination and tenacity, he stood atop them all.
However, the highest points on earth are still not the
summit of his accomplishments and he continues to
break down barriers and touch people’s lives.
In 2004 Weihenmayer received a letter from a blind
German woman, Sabriye Tenberken, who had founded
a school for the blind in Tibet. She had followed Erik’s
Everest ascent with her students and wrote to him
expressing their admiration and how they had been
inspired. Weihenmayer subsequently formed a group
that returned to Everest and led six blind Tibetan
students up 21,500 feet on the north side of Mount
Everest – the highest any group of blind people have
ever stood. Blind people have been terribly stigmatised
in Tibet, often believed to be paying a karmic debt.
Tenberken and Weihenmayer have greatly reduced this
negative perception. Their extraordinary journey is the
and making them into good things.”
Above: Perfect 13,000 feet on Mount Kilimanjaro. subject of the award winning documentary, Blindsight.
‘figure 8s’ skied They went on to have a daughter, Emma, now Weihenmayer continues to inspire others and he
on Veil pass near
Weihenmayer aged nine, and last year they adopted a Nepalese boy was invited to be a keynote speaker at a presidential
home in Colorado. Arjun, now 70. inauguration event in January in Washington DC
It was while teaching in Phoenix that Weihenmayer alongside ex-Secretary of State Colin Powell and the
got out into the mountains and over time he honed former vice president Al Gore, addressing a gathering
his climbing skills, surrounding himself with positive of more than 6,000 young people. His rousing
people who put no limitations on him. Erik cites this speeches are the culmination of a life undaunted by
as a key aspect in living up to his potential. adversity. And his indomitable character and exaltation
“I wanted to be a climber, so I threw myself into the in battling through hardships prove that adversity can
climbing world,” he says. “I joined every climbing club be a potent force in life. It can shape character and
I could. I joined a rock gym. I surrounded myself with clarify priorities, define a path and fuel greatness.
climbers. On a mountain you have a rope team, people The heights that Weihenmayer encourages people to
connected by a rope and moving upward together. You scale don’t have to be found on mountaintops but they
kind of have to find your own rope team in life. I’ve are integral to enriching life. As he says “A summit is
worked hard to do that and maintain that rope team. just a symbol. A summit can be anywhere, it is that
I’ve surrounded myself with the best climbers and the moment when we realise our lives are important, that
most positive people I could. They didn’t bring me we can contribute to something extraordinary, that we
down, which gave me belief.” can transform our lives into whatever we want them to
Eventually one of Erik’s climbing partners suggested be. When we come together with good people, we can
they attempt something different. Mount McKinley, or transform the world in a positive way.” ❖
July 2009 55