Blind climber tells his story

"Being a blind climber is kind of like being a Jamaican bobsledder," Erik Weihenmayer joked. "People don't really expect them."

Weihenmayer's life story has exceeded the expectations of his doubters. "The blind man who climbed Everest," as he is commonly known, employed a combination of witty commentary, thrilling stories accompanied by videos and pictures and inspirational rhetoric in the lecture he delivered Wednesday night as part of the Jake McCandless '51 PVC Speaker Series.

Weihenmayer became the first blind man to reach the summit of Mt. Everest on May 25, 2001. But that was only the final step in a lifetime's journey of hard work and perseverance.

Weihenmayer was born with retinoschesis, which gradually causes the retina to deteriorate, causing him to lose all vision by the age of 13. At first, he was extremely frustrated by all he had lost and his condition. Then, he received a newsletter advertising a camp for blind kids to go rock climbing. In the back of his mind he thought that was a crazy idea — and he knew he had to do it.

Reaching the summit of his first climb, hearing the sound of space vibrations and feeling the rock underneath his hands, Weihenmayer knew he was experiencing something special. "It was beautiful," he said.

That feeling at the top of that first summit comes back with every climb he does. And despite the difficulties and challenges each individual mountain brings, Weihenmayer knows it is worth it. Worth the constant fear of reaching out with no guarantees, but knowing it is impossible to turn back. Worth testing your abilities on a daily basis and coming to terms with the fact that you aren't as good as you thought you were. Worth meeting failure and adversity face to face to eventually make yourself stronger and succeed.

No, he isn't crazy. And he doesn't believe he's risking his life on every climb.

He'll tell you he is a problem solver who is making the most of the gifts he was given. "What we believe in our hearts is possible," he said. It was this confidence and goal to challenge himself that propelled him to climb Everest.

Weihenmayer knew he couldn't get to the top of the world alone, acknowledging the importance of his team, a group of friends who weren't afraid to link themselves together with an interdependence that would aid them to the top. Weihenmayer stressed the importance of surrounding yourself with people who believe in you to achieve everything you are capable of.

Getting to the top of the mountain meant taking it step by step — facing each individual challenge one at a time. The greatest challenge in climbing Everest came on one particular icy path. It took Weihenmayer 13 hours to climb the most difficult portion of the Everest's icy path the first time. Those were 13 of the hardest hours of his life — 13 hours of perfection required in order to avoid a possible fatal fall.

When he reached camp that night, he thought he was done, as the voices of doubt that had followed him his entire life crept into his mind. Making matters worse, Weihenmayer's team was forced to return to base camp by inclement weather, forcing them to perform the tricky ascent again. This time, he completed it in five hours.

Weihenmayer's group ended up reaching the summit of Everest. As he quoted Helen Keller, "The greatest things must be felt from the heart." Reaching the summit of Everest was symbolic in that sense — it was living proof of the strength and courage of people on the expedition. It was also an example of teamwork and leadership at their best — each climber leading by example and working together to reach the top. Weihenmayer applied this to everyday life, saying, "When we join hands with those around us, we can transform the face of the Earth."

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After climbing Everest, Weihenmayer's team led a group of six blind Tibetan teenagers on a month long expedition to a peak on the north side of Everest. According to him, the expedition was proof that "leadership is contagious and giving to people around us can do great things."

The journey doesn't end here. Weihenmayer already has plans for the upcoming year. In addition to planning additional challenging climbs and leading another climb with a group of blind teenagers, he is writing a book on using adversity to your advantage and planning a No Barriers festival, which will teach kids how to use new technology in their own lives.

Despite being blind, his vision is a great one: to lead and be a pioneer, to blast through expectations and, most importantly, to give hope to others.

As one of the blind Tibetan teenagers said, "We are blind but we can do everything."