Erik Weihenmayer: A Visionary Without Sight Who Reached the Greatest Heights
“It’s one thing to create a vision but entirely another thing to believe in it so strongly that you are able to summon up the courage, discipline, and focus to live within its framework.”
This is the incredible story of a person who dared to make his dreams a reality in the face of insurmountable odds. Despite being blind, he found the courage to scale the ultimate summit—not just of the world’s tallest mountain but also the pinnacle of his potential—and transform his life in a way that’s undeniably providential.
Erik Weihenmayer is the first sightless person to reach the summits of Mount Everest and the seven other tallest mountains in the world. He is also all of the following: an adventurist, athlete, activist, author, educator, motivational speaker, outreach minister, and Harvard Business School lecturer.
During their ascent of Mount Everest, Weihenmayer and his team crossed rickety snow bridges over yawning crevices, experienced oxygen deprivation at 25,919 feet (7,900 meters), navigated a frozen labyrinth for 13 hours, dodged the Khumbu Icefall (1,998 feet / 609 meters of constantly disintegrating and exploding ice boulders), and scaled sections so treacherous, even some of the most seasoned mountaineers in the past have perished in them.
One glaring example was the “1996 disaster,” in which eight professional climbers died in a storm that ravaged the 29,031.7-foot (8,848.86-meter) mountain.
Weihenmayer proved that one can do stupendous exploits even without the benefit of sight. Watch this inspirational video from NBC’s Today show about his attempts to soar farther than the eye can see.
In this post, we celebrate his rise above disability to lead a life marked with multiple accomplishments. And he shows no signs of slowing down.
Time After Time
Weihenmayer made the cover of Time magazine on June 18, 2001, headlined “Blind Faith.” They featured his May 25 Mount Everest feat for their cover story. Apart from that, he was featured in many other editions of the magazine. As of early October 2021, his name appears in 52 documents on the publication’s database.
These articles are the most prominent:
Blind To Failure—published on June 18, 2001. This is Karl Taro Greenfeld’s cover story about Weihenmayer’s Everest triumph.
A Job and a Story Without Limits—also published on June 18, 2001, as an adjunct to the cover story. It is an op-ed on Greenfeld’s pursuit of Weihenmayer’s Everest debut, post-climb.
The journalist and the mountaineer’s meeting was paradoxical because the Nepalese royal massacre occurred when they met. On June 1, 2001, Nepal’s Crown Prince Dipendra assassinated his parents, King Birendra and Queen Aishwarya, and most of the royal family.
The expedition and the murders happened only a few days apart, pitting death, mayhem, and political upheaval against the face of another’s triumph. Greenfeld claimed he had more difficulty processing Weihenmayer’s story compared to the massacre.
Top 10 Everything 2001 list—published on December 1, 2001. Weihenmayer was number eight in their sports category. He shared the listing with Tiger Woods, Lance Armstrong, Jennifer Capriati, and the World Series, among others.
In Hillary and Tenzing’s Bootprints—Weihenmayer wrote this article for Time on May 12, 2003. He mentioned how Braille-reading about these two trailblazers inspired him to follow suit.
Oscar Pistorius [1]—On May 12, 2008, Weihenmayer wrote this entry for Time’s ‘2008 TIME 100’ list, the magazine’s fifth annual roundup of the world’s most influential people.
His Primary Challenge
Weihenmayer was born on September 23, 1968, in Princeton, New Jersey. When he was four years old, he was diagnosed with retinoschisis, a rare degenerative eye disorder that left him blind at 13.
The disease has neither cure nor medical treatments, save for vitrectomy in case complications arise, like if the retina gets detached. Vitrectomy is a type of surgery that involves removing the eyeball’s vitreous humor (gelatinous tissue behind the lens).
Initially denying his pending loss of sight, Weihenmayer eventually came to accept it following an accident. Even after he came to terms with his disability, he did not surrender to the notion that his blindness would reduce him to simply exist on the sidelines.
His Supportive Family
Weihenmayer has one older sister and two older brothers who were athletes. Mark was a star football player and Eddie was a weightlifter and basketball player. So he wanted to be an athlete like them. But “I was the youngest and smallest kid in the family,” he recalled, ruefully.
His dad Ed was in the marines; a Vietnam vet. He was a captain of the football team in Princeton. With his can-do attitude, Ed encouraged his son early on to figure out how to do things for himself.
Laying the Groundwork for Greatness
Before Weihenmayer lost his sight completely, his father made him practice everyday activities, even sports and riding a bike on ramps. He spray-painted the ramps a bright orange so his son could see contrasting colors and get used to where objects were located.
Ed never told his son, “You can’t do that anymore,” even after complete blindness had set in. Weihenmayer appreciated this token of confidence and credits his resilience to it.
Having the vision to do something worthwhile only to lose your sight may be one of the greatest tragedies ever.
Nevertheless, Weihenmayer proved that even with major disadvantages, anyone can still fulfill goals. But dreaming about them is not enough.
He explains, “It’s one thing to create a vision but entirely another thing to believe in it so strongly that you are able to summon up the courage, discipline, and focus to live within its framework.”
This is where one of his dad’s life lessons kicks in.
His dad taught him “laser-sharp targeted perception.” This is what you employ when you want to do something important. Create the best team and all the support systems needed to make it happen. Prepare as much as humanly possible, then relentlessly focus on it until you achieve it.
Likewise, Weihenmayer’s mother was a force to reckon with. Her strength gave her son the steel reserve he has now. Weihenmayer recalls that despite her internal fragility, she had a tough outer shell that enabled her to make a lot of difficult decisions. Like a mother lion, she was always creating various opportunities and opening doors for him, making sure he didn’t miss out on anything.
Instead of sending him to an institute for special needs children, his mom placed him in a mainstream school with sighted kids. But he wasn’t helpless. His parents provided him with purpose-built tools, such as special binoculars to see the whiteboard. His books were in large print.
At home, she helped him with his homework, reading to him what he couldn’t see. She helped him create organizational systems that would aid him later on in life.
Sadly, his mom was killed in a car accident. “Losing my mom was a thousand times more painful than going blind. I would have gone blind a thousand times over than to have that loss in my life,” he said in an interview with Mark Allen.
Still, years later, fortune smiled on him by giving him his own nuclear family. In his early 20s, he married his co-teacher, Ellie Reeves, in August 1997 on the Shira Plateau of Mount Kilimanjaro, northern Tanzania. They live in Golden, Colorado with their two children.
In his memoirs, he expressed gratitude to his family and friends who made up his support team. He acknowledges that he couldn’t have accomplished what he had if it weren’t for them: “The course of one’s life is like the ascent of a mountain. Although a climber may have the privilege of standing on top, it takes a team to get him there.”
Moral Sustenance
Weihenmayer’s family staunchly supported his endeavors, even though they knew these weren’t run-of-the-mill adventures and were downright dangerous. When he was almost at the summit of Mount McKinley, his dad, two brothers, and his wife all went up in a Cessna to witness him reach the top.
How ironic that his father and two brothers were the ones who started him off on mountain climbing and guided him through the first 10 years of his mountaineering—and yet, they were the ones who saw him off as he scaled Everest. They went down from base camp as he climbed up. Even though Weihenmayer Senior has a replacement hip, he made sure he didn’t miss his son’s biggest moment.
Denial, Then Acceptance
Weihenmayer initially didn’t accept he was going blind until darkness entirely set in. Previously, he made excuses when he couldn’t see things, like saying the sun was in his eyes.
His mom made him use a cane. In the beginning, he didn’t want to and tried to get rid of each one in creative ways (like ‘accidentally’ dropping it down sewer grates or throwing it onto incoming traffic, so cars could run over it) because he didn’t want to look different from others.
Until one day, while walking on the dock near his house, he tripped, flipped into the air, and landed on his back on the deck of a boat. It was then that he acknowledged his mom was right.
He then started using a cane because now, he was convinced it was the only way to survive. That led him to finally acknowledge his blindness. He discovered that what he thought would make him “seem like a freak”—using resources like a cane, a guide dog, Braille, and voice synthesizers—actually brought him closer to people and allowed him to function in the real world.
How He Got Into Athletics
After he had been blind for a few years, he joined his high school wrestling team and attended wrestling camp. His success in the sport encouraged him to go further. So he represented Connecticut in the National Junior Freestyle Wrestling Championship in Iowa.
One day, he received a newsletter in Braille about a group taking blind kids rock climbing in New Hampshire. Though incredulous that there were people crazy enough to do such a thing, he signed up.
Despite the initial fumbling and floundering, he loved the activity. It gave him the opportunity to tackle a challenge and decipher his way through it. He emerged from the experience with a newfound exuberance and felt less bound by his disability.
This first bout with rock climbing lit a fire in him that would one day spur him on to accomplish hundreds of ascents worldwide and ultimately reach Mount Everest’s summit.
(As an accomplished rock climber, he rates 5.10, with 5.14 being the highest.)
He claims that the same fervor exists within all of us: “A spark of greatness exists in all people, but only by touching that spark to adversity’s flame does it blaze into the force that fuels our lives and the world.”
His Life in Academia
Weihenmayer graduated with a double major in English and Communications from Boston College and a Master’s in Education from Lesley University. Six years before his mountaineering exploits and speaking engagements, he was a wrestling coach and a middle-school teacher. He taught Math, English, and life strategies at Phoenix Country Day School.
Conquering Mountains, Snow, Ice, and High Altitudes
Weihenmayer started his 13-year mountaineering sojourn in 1995 by climbing the 20,310-foot (6,190-meter) Mount Denali (formerly Mount McKinley) in Alaska, North America’s highest peak. He reached its summit with help from several climbers. He scaled El Capitan in Yosemite National Park, California, one year later.
When he announced that he was going to climb Mount Everest, the international mountaineering community expressed reservations about a blind individual scaling the tallest peak on earth, claiming the idea was “beyond ridiculous,” even “absurd.”
Naysayers aside, the pressure from the Everest challenge was monumental—not necessarily from the height of the mountain or its arduous conditions but from the demographic he represents. If he failed, he would be disappointing not just himself but every blind person the world over, verifying that specific activities are only for those who can see.
That was why, undeterred by all the negative noise around him, Weihenmayer pushed on. Furthermore, he knew in his heart that he had adequately prepared for it. For 16 years, he had been practicing on various mountainous terrain using long poles, ice axes, and his elevated senses of smell, touch, and taste.
You read it right: taste. He used his tongue with a gadget that helped him navigate his surroundings.
(The device, called BrainPort Vision Pro, transforms light into electrical impulses that activate the tongue’s receptors rather than the retina. The late Paul Bach-y-Rita was one of its inventors. The manufacturer, Wicab, developed the technology further after his demise.)
Besides, the National Federation of the Blind backed his venture with a $250,000 sponsorship. Also, as Weihenmayer has seasonal allergies, Aventis Pharmaceuticals, the makers of the allergy medication Allegra, sponsored a documentary on the climb to promote it.
Former Everest climber Pasquale Scaturro, a geophysicist who organized remote petroleum explorations for energy firms, helped him assemble a 19-member team for the Everest trip. Of the 19, 12 were Weihenmayer’s friends with whom he climbed before and seven were veteran Everest climbers. Later, a couple of sherpas [2] joined them, making the total headcount 21.
When Weihenmayer did reach the top of Everest, he showed his doubters (and mockers) what sheer grit and ignoring others’ disparagement can accomplish.
In response to his detractors, he defiantly declared, “When other people’s expectations become barriers, the best thing to do is to surmount them. When you hit a barrier, sometimes, it’s just a matter of having an open mind and the courage to try something new.”
Some critics were harsher. Professional climbers refused to be part of Weihenmayer’s team for fear of getting stuck “hauling the blind guy down.” The documentary crew filming the climb predicted with surety that he was going to encounter a disaster. A climber (not part of his team) said he would hang close by to “get the first picture of the dead blind guy.”
A Time reader even had his disgust published on the Letters to the Editor page, belittling Weihenmayer’s Everest achievement and declaring that the real heroes in life are those who go to work and take care of their families every day.
He said that since there is no doubt that the disabled are capable of “doing fun stuff,” Weihenmayer’s ability to function in high altitudes is not newsworthy.
Time’s deputy editor Greenfeld, who wrote the cover story, defended Weihenmayer with this statement: “What (he) achieved is hard for a sighted person to comprehend. There is no way to put what Erik has done into perspective because no one has ever done anything like it. It is a unique achievement that pushes the limits of what man is capable of.”
As a matter of fact, only 10% of mountaineers who scale Mount Everest reach the summit. Even with optimal conditions, the ascent is physically and psychologically daunting for all climbers, expert or not.
Less celebrated than Weihenmayer but worthy of note is his teammate, 64-year-old Sherman Bull, the oldest man to climb Everest. He and his son Brad were the second father-and-son team to reach her summit.
Additional Feathers
Not content with reaching Mount Everest’s crown, he set off to do the same for the rest of the six tallest mountains on the planet. This achievement in September 2002 was the culmination of his goal to scale the seven summits.
There is an actual exclusive club called the Seven Summits Challenge, of which Weihenmayer is a part. Of the 500 member climbers, he is the only blind one. His Everest feat ranks number four on the list of the greatest ascents of the world’s tallest mountain.
In 2008, he added another achievement to the ones above by reaching the crest of Carstensz Pyramid (aka Puncak Jaya or Mount Jayawijaya; elevation: 16,024 feet / 4,884 meters) in Western New Guinea, the tallest peak on an island, in Indonesia and in Oceania. With that, he completed climbing all Eight Summits.
His determination was partly buoyed by his expedition team leader’s advice: “Don’t make Everest the greatest thing you ever do.” Weihenmayer said those words stuck with him and changed the course of his life.
The same counsel also prompted him to lead blind Tibetan teens and even professional climbers on various mountaineering expeditions, in addition to achieving numerous other daredevil exploits. His 2004 adventure with the Tibetans was featured in a documentary called Blindsight. (See below for details.)
Conquering Rivers and Skies
Apart from mountaineering, Weihenmayer has done rock and ice climbing, as well as solo skydiving at 12,000 feet.
One would think that the last activity is the most frightening. But for him, kayaking is the scariest. He describes his experience as such: “You navigate a chaotic environment just by the sound of your guide’s voice, the river, and what you’re feeling under your boat.”
Nonetheless, Weihenmayer took it as another challenge. In September 2014, he and blind Navy veteran Lonnie Bedwell traversed the entire length of the Grand Canyon kayaking on the Colorado River, which many regard as one of the world’s most intimidating whitewater locales.
Conquering the TV, Movie, and Publishing Industries
Weihenmayer’s expeditions have been featured in award-winning documentaries.
One of his projects was a TV show with Hollywood actor Will Smith. They appeared in an episode of a National Geographic original series called Welcome to Earth. They showcased their phenomenal expedition around the world, which took several years to complete. The series is available on Disney+.
View the show’s trailer.
He has written three inspirational books about his adventures and speaking career:
1) Touch the Top of the World: A Blind Man’s Journey to Climb Farther Than the Eye Can See (2002)—His memoir is about his dream of scaling the world’s seven summits and his efforts to go beyond the limits of his blindness in an environment that mostly caters to a sighted populace.
He poignantly recalls his family’s tremendous and undying support of his endeavors. His older brothers taught him to climb rocks and mountains, his dad helped him prepare for the onslaught of his disease with constant pep talks and navigational systems, and his mom provided the spiritual and mental foundation for the trials ahead.
This first book has been made into an A&E movie and Sony Pictures Entertainment released its DVD version. (See below for details.) It has been published in nine languages and 12 countries.
It has also won three awards:
Free Spirit Award
Arthur Ashe Courage Award (presented as part of the ESPY Awards)
2) The Adversity Advantage: Turning Everyday Struggles into Everyday Greatness (2010)—Co-authored with adversity guru Dr. Paul G Stoltz, this book offers a motivational seven-step system for turning both routine and impassioned efforts into stellar achievements.
Stoltz is the creator of and leading expert on the Adversity Quotient, the most widely designated method of evaluating and fortifying human resilience. Weihenmayer teamed up with him to offer readers practical science and real-life examples on how to use obstacles to their advantage.
3) No Barriers: A Blind Man’s Journey to Kayak the Grand Canyon (2017)—Co-written with Buddy Levy, Weihenmayer’s second memoir is an account of his kayaking exploits. The book is named after Weihenmayer’s support organization. The narrative expands on its mission statement.
He has written and produced two movies and appeared in documentaries about his life and adventures:
Blindsight (2006)—This adventure documentary is about Weihenmayer leading six Tibetan blind youth and their teachers on a climbing expedition to the 23,113.52-foot (7,045-meter) Lhakpa Ri mountain located at the north side of Mount Everest. Lucy Walker directs.
Sabriye Tenberken, the blind German social worker and founder of the first school for the blind in Lhasa, Tibet, prompted the students to invite Weihenmayer to visit their school after learning about his Everest feat. This film won the People’s Choice Awards at the Berlin, London, and Los Angeles Film Festivals.
Touch the Top of the World (2006)—This is the TV movie based on Weihenmayer’s first book. It details his adventures, including scaling El Capitan and skiing down Mount Elbrus (Europe and Russia’s tallest peak). Peter Winther directs. This film was nominated for two Emmy awards and won first prize at 21 international film festivals.
Blind Skiers Edge (2009)—This documentary takes a peek inside the domain of blind skiing and the luminaries that make it possible. Michael Brown directs.
Delivering His Message
Weihenmayer had always wanted to share the victories he accumulated and the wisdom he learned from mountaineering to help people eliminate the barriers that prevent them from accomplishing what they want.
So he co-founded the non-profit organization No Barriers USA in 2005. Its mission is to assist special-needs people to live an active and purposeful existence by teaching them outdoor skills. Its motto is “What’s within you is stronger than what’s in your way.”
Its message delivery platform is the No Barriers Podcast, which he co-hosts with Dave Shurna and Jeff Evans. Their podcasts focus on turning adversity to one’s advantage and living a “no barriers” existence.
Weihenmayer and his team celebrated the 10th anniversary of their Everest ascent with a new No Barriers program called “No Barriers Warriors.” It helps veterans and injured military reclaim their lives through teamwork and navigating mountains.
On Overcoming Hurdles
Before you think Weihenmayer has superpowers, he makes it clear that he is as human as the rest of us. When he was traversing Everest, he had numerous moments of doubt during which he heard voices in his head telling him, “What are you doing here? You’re out of your league. You don’t have a chance. Go down.”
He recalled how deflated he was: “It’s so hard not to give in to those voices. But don’t listen to them because they can suck up your energy, will, and desire. They’re just fear. Keep your mind clear.”
He summons up a Tibetan quote that helped him: “The nature of the mind is like water. If you do not disturb it, it will become clear.”
He claims that these words were what spurred him on and enabled him to withstand the trek amid the hazardous icefall (mentioned earlier). He emphasized the need to have one’s wits about to acclimatize and set up camp. “You cannot let distractions sway you from what you’re supposed to do.”
On Being a Trailblazer
Weihenmayer urges us not to be afraid of taking the first step, even if we have to do it alone. Front runners are always ahead of everyone else, which can put them in a perilous position because their ideas or actions are typically not supported by the majority.
“The most exciting and torturous aspect of life is when we become pioneers,” he declares. He says that when we go beyond convention, we discover unexpected ways to make possible what others deem impossible.
Final Thoughts
There is a reason Weihenmayer is one of the world’s most in-demand motivational speakers. He is constantly on the lookout for intrepid adventures while empowering marginalized people relegated by society to the sidelines.
What can we learn from him?
Owing to what he has accomplished so far—which not many regular folks with all their senses intact have been able to do—it’s safe to say that he has mastered adversity.
So, to conquer hardship ourselves, we should contemplate what he did. He has recognized that although adversity has the power to test our resolve and batter us down, it also has positive aspects. It teaches us how to prioritize, builds our character, prompts us to shift our life trajectories where needed, and propels us to pursue greatness.
So if we view adversity the way Weihenmayer does—as a potent force that can help us instead of destroying us, we don’t have to rise above it. We can use it to our advantage.
Who knows? Like Weihenmayer, we may also reach our own summit.
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Expat Scribe, the writer of this article, is also the author of the techno-thriller, “The Invisible Cyber Bully: What it’s like to be watched 24/7.”
The novel tackles the surreptitious bullying and illegal surveillance, DNA-extraction, psychological torture, and experimentation on ordinary citizens by law enforcers, scientific laboratories, various “hidden” associations, and global authorities. Some chapters discuss the garden-variety bully from schools and neighborhoods. The book also features a primer on how to fight cyber bullying.
Footnotes:
[1] Oscar Pistorius is a South African Olympic and Paralympic athlete convicted of murdering his girlfriend on Valentine’s Day. The first double amputee to compete in the Olympics, he ran using prosthetic blades, earning him the moniker, “Blade Runner.”
[2] Sherpas are Himalayans in Nepal or Tibet hired for their mountaineering skills to guide climbers and carry their equipment during expeditions.
Sources:
Touch the Top of the World: A Blind Man’s Journey to Climb Farther Than the Eye Can See
The Adversity Advantage: Turning Everyday Struggles into Everyday Greatness
No Barriers: A Blind Man’s Journey to Kayak the Grand Canyon
Discover Magazine: The Blind Climber Who “Sees” With His Tongue
Great Big Story: The Blind Mountaineer Who Conquered Everest
Sujith Pushpan: A True Inspirational Life Story of a Blind Man
Weihenmayer’s No Barriers Podcast with hosts Jeff Evans and Dave Shurna
Photo Credits:
Victory on a mountaintop silhouette—Nilina
Close-up of Weihenmayer, Mount Sherman, Colorado—licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International (CC-BY-SA 4.0)
Bike silhouette—Sina Sadeqi
Weihenmayer’s 2012 stage presentation—CC-BY-SA 4.0
Mountain climber silhouette—Анна Рыжкова
Figure pushing a boulder up a mountain—Schäferle
BrainPort device—courtesy Wicab
Figure on a hill with a halo—Nathan Dumlao
Weihenmayer’s Fort Lauderdale conference speech in Florida in 2007—Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license (CC-BY-SA 3.0)
Figure on a boardwalk surrounded by a lake and mountains—S Migaj
Contemplation in a cave—Luke Leung
Video Credits:
Video used in the trailer: Pixabay collection
Accompanying music: MickeysCat
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