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As a child he lost his eyesight, lost his mother, and climbing experts said he should lose his dream.
As an adult Erik Weihenmayer touched the top of the world when he stood on the summit of Mount Everest.
Erik Weihenmayer
1968-
Erik Weihenmayer was born with a rare genetic disease of the retina called retinoschisis. His loss of eyesight was gradual until he was totally blind by age 13. Later, as an adult, he would have to have both eyes removed and replaced with prosthetics because of glaucoma.
In high school he became interested in the sport of wrestling and joined his high school's wrestling team. During the summer after his freshman year he went off to a summer wrestling camp. He felt his life was beginning to come together. He was finding success in this sport, he was becoming proficient in reading Braille, and his mobility skills had improved since going totally blind just a couple of years earlier. Then he got hit with an even bigger blow.
While at summer camp his father came to the camp one day. Erik couldn't believe what he was hearing as his father told him that his mother had just been killed in a car accident. Erik was devastated. He said his mother loved him fiercely and had always fought for him like a mother lioness.
The next summer when he was 16 years old he attended a camp for children who are blind. It was at this camp that he was introduced to the sport of rock climbing. He fell in love with this sport right away. He said that, unlike a football or basketball which are always moving, the mountain is standing still.
Erik credits his father with having taught him to have the courage to push forward when faced with challenges. He began challenging himself to climb higher than most believed possible. He had found his passion. He said that the loss of his sight, the death of loved ones, and the enormous roadblocks placed in his path were not enough to stamp out his passion.
Is there anything in this world that could stamp out your passion?
After high school Erik enrolled in Boston College where he had a double major. During his freshman year he had to have his left eye removed because of glaucoma. After earning a Bachelor's Degree from Boston College he went on to enroll in a Master's Program in Education. Upon completion he moved to Phoenix, Arizona where he taught fifth grade in the public schools. He used his summer vacations for his climbing expeditions for several years until he decided to devote full-time to climbing. It was also while he was teaching in Phoenix that he met, fell in love with, and married a sixth grade teacher from his school. Their baby girl, Emma, was born on June 21, 2000.
On May 25, 2001 Erik Weihenmayer became the first blind person to stand on the summit of Mount Everest. This was the crown jewel of his dream which was to scale the 7 summits, the highest mountain on each of the seven continents. The seven peaks are:
Earlier this month on September 5, 2002 Erik scaled the last of the 7 summits. After skiing down from the summit of Mount Kosciusko in Australia's Snowy Mountains, Erik Weihenmayer stepped right into mountaineering history.
Erik is also a lifelong wrestler and the first recipient of the National Wrestling Hall of Fame's Medal of Courage. He's also an avid biker, runner, a skydiver and one of 12 blind certified open-water scuba divers in the United States.
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