Erik Weihenmayer

Erik Weihenmayer (born September 23, 1968) is an American athlete, adventurer, author, activist and motivational speaker.

Weihenmayer was born September 23, 1968, in Princeton, New Jersey.

At 15 months old, he was diagnosed with juvenile retinoschisis, with blindness the expected outcome by age 13.

At age 4, Weihenmayer and his family moved to Coral Gables, Florida, and, in 1975, to Hong Kong, where Weihenmayer attended the Hong Kong International School for grades 2–6.

As he was going blind, Weihenmayer fought against using canes and learning Braille.

He wanted to hang on to his life in the sighted world.

Upon returning to America, Weihenmayer and his family settled in Connecticut, where he attended Weston High School.

He eventually turned to wrestling and became a prominent force in high school, captaining his team and representing Connecticut in the National Junior Freestyle Wrestling Championship in Iowa.

At age 16, he started using a guide dog.

He tried rock climbing, and found he was a natural at scrambling up a face using his hands and feet to find holds.

Then he attended Boston College and graduated with a double major in English and communications.

He did his student-teaching at Buckingham Browne & Nichols School in Massachusetts, became a middle-school teacher at Phoenix Country Day School, where he met his fellow teacher and future wife, Ellie Reeves.

He also coached wrestling in Phoenix.

Weihenmayer has been granted honorary degrees from Lehigh University, Lafayette College, Babson College, Colorado Mountain College, the University of Vermont, and Lesley University.

Weihenmayer's first big mountain was Denali, in 1995.

Weihenmayer has also made noteworthy climbs up the Nose of El Capitan in Yosemite in 1996, and ascended Losar, a 2700 ft vertical ice face in the Himalayas in 2008.

He was the first blind person to reach the summit of Mount Everest, on May 25, 2001.

As a result of this accomplishment he was featured on the cover of Time magazine.

On May 25, 2001, Weihenmayer became the first blind person to reach the summit of Mount Everest.

For this feat, he was honored with a Time Magazine cover story.

Of his Everest ascent, Time stated, "There is no way to put what Erik has done in perspective because no one has ever done anything like it. It is a unique achievement, one that in the truest sense pushes the limits of what man is capable of."

He also completed the Seven Summits in September 2002, one of only 150 mountaineers at the time to do so, but the only climber who achieved this while blind.

He also completed the Seven Summits in September 2002, joining 150 mountaineers at the time who had accomplished that feat, but as the only climber who was blind.

In 2004, with Jeff Evans, Sabriye Tenberken and six blind Tibetan teenagers, he climbed on the north side of Everest to 21,500 feet, higher than any group of blind people have ever stood.

In 2005, he co-founded No Barriers, a nonprofit organization that helps people of diverse backgrounds and abilities to attack challenges head on, problem solve, build winning teams, and serve others.

A documentary based on the project, Blindsight, was released in 2006.

In 2006, Weihenmayer created the Adventure Team Challenge, a first-of-its-kind adventure race in which teams of disabled and non-disabled athletes compete; his team won five years in a row.

In 2008, he also added the Carstensz Pyramid thus completing the Eight Summits.

In 2008, he also added Carstensz Pyramid in Indonesia, the tallest peak in Australasia, thus completing the more respected Eight Summits.

Weihenmayer has climbed rock and ice faces around the world.

These include the first blind ascent of the 3,000-foot Nose of El Capitan in Yosemite, a difficult alpine climb of spectacular Alpamayo in Peru, and an ascent of a rarely-climbed 700-meter frozen waterfall in Nepal.

In 2010, he completed the Leadville 100 mountain bike race, with elevations all above 10,000 feet, on a tandem, once again becoming the first blind person to complete a world-class competition.

And in 2011, Weihenmayer's Team No Limits raced across the deserts and mountains of Morocco for a month, finishing in second place on the ABC reality show Expedition Impossible.

He has also completed the Primal Quest, an adventure race over 460 miles with 60,000 feet of elevation gain.

In addition to being an adventurer and speaker, Weihenmayer is also the author of the book, Touch the Top of the World: A Blind Man's Journey to Climb Farther Than the Eye can See, which has been published in twelve countries and nine languages.

Publishers Weekly described Weihenmayer's memoir as "moving and adventure packed, Weihenmayer tells his extraordinary story with humor, honesty and vivid detail, and his fortitude and enthusiasm are deeply inspiring."

The book was made into an A&E movie and released on DVD by Sony.

In September 2014, Weihenmayer and blinded Navy veteran Lonnie Bedwell kayaked the entire 277 miles of the Grand Canyon, considered one of the most formidable whitewater locations in the world.

Today, while still adventuring, he is a prominent worldwide speaker, focusing on the topic of living a "No Barriers Life."

In September 2014, Weihenmayer and blinded Navy veteran, Lonnie Bedwell, kayaked the entire 277-miles of the Grand Canyon, considered one of the most formidable whitewater venues in the world.