Erik Weihenmayer – An Extreme Sportsman

So who exactly is Erik Weihenmayer?

Certainly an extreme sportsman. Also an extremely competent sportsman with many extreme accomplishments under his belt. Also he is a  blind sportsman.

He is the only blind person to have climbed the “Seven Summits,” the tallest peak on every continent. He has scaled the 3000 foot rock face of El Capitan, skied down the tallest peak in Europe, and guided Tibetan blind teenagers to 21,500 feet on the north side of Mt. Everest. He has scaled Polar Circus, a 3000-foot ice waterfall in The Canadian Rockies; and conquered a difficult and rarely climbed rock face on 17,000-foot Mt. Kenya. Erik is also a prolific speaker and author of two books.

He was born with a disease called retinoschisis and became totally blind by the age of 13.

Despite losing his vision he has become an accomplished mountain climber, paraglider, and skier, who has never let his blindness interfere with his passion for an exhilarating and fulfilling life. Erik’s feats have earned him an ESPY award, recognition by Time Magazine for one of the greatest sporting achievements of 2001, induction into the National Wrestling Hall of Fame, an ARETE Award for the superlative athletic performance of the year, the Helen Keller Lifetime Achievement award, Nike’s Casey Martin Award, and the Freedom Foundation’s Free Spirit Award. He has also carried the Olympic Torch for both the Summer and Winter Games.

In July 2008 the Real Deal Inclusive Sports Adventure brought the world’s first integrated adventure race to the banks of the Colorado river – integrated meaning 10 teams of 5 athletes per team, 3able-bodied and 2 disabled working together whilst mountain biking, rafting, climbing, swimming and rappelling.

In September, 2003, Erik joined 320 athletes from 17 countries to compete in the Primal Quest, the richest and toughest multi-sport adventure race in the world: 457 miles through the Sierra Nevada’s, nine days, sixty thousand feet of elevation gain, and no time-outs. Averaging only two hours of sleep a night, Erik and his team surged past the finish line on Lake Tahoe, becoming one of the 42 teams to cross the finish line out of the 80 teams that began.

“There’s a debate going on about how to get disabled people into the outdoors. Do you make the outdoors more accessible to them by paving over trails, or do you adapt yourself to the environment?” Weihenmayer said. “This race sort of shows that you can adapt yourself to the environment. I can’t think of a better way to do it.”

The idea was born from Weihenmayer’s experiences during the 2003 Primal Quest race in the Sierra Nevadas. Whilst people were questioning why Weihenmayer was in the event, his team went on to successfully complete the race.

“The rumor was that we wouldn’t make it past the first day, and we beat 40 able-bodied teams,” he said. “So that was in the back of my mind, that traditionally there is this idea that disabled people can’t take part in an adventure race because it’s too rugged, it’s too risky, it’s too difficult………”

Erik’s speaking career has taken him around the world, from Hong Kong to Switzerland, from Thailand to the 2005 APEC Summit in Chile. He speaks to audiences on harnessing the power of adversity, the importance of a “rope team,” and the daily struggle to pursue your dreams. Clearly, Erik’s accomplishments show that one does not have to have perfect eyesight to have extraordinary vision.

I am sure you will enjoy listening to this inspirational video of an interview between Andy Andrews and Erik Weihenmayer. Thank you to AndyAndrewsdotcom for sharing it with us.

I Found Another Mountain!

I found another mountain that I should have included in my ‘Mountains of the World’ article. Have you heard of the CARSTENSZ PYRAMID? It certainly sounds as though it fits in the extreme mountain bracket…

“Anyone who has once seen Carstensz Pyramid longs for it like it was a beautiful woman. It seduces you while remaining mysterious. Once in a while it shows you all of its beauty, only to be covered in the veil of mist a minute later. It is provocative but unattainable. It makes you tormented and restless, as it does us…“

Petr Jahoda – climber, Papua & Carstensz guide

This is she. The Carstensz Pyramid, 4884m. Otherwise known as Puncak Jaya, it is in the western central highlands of Papua, Indonesia. It is the highest mountain in Indonesia and the highest mountain in New Guinea. It is the highest on the Australia-New Guinea continent and the highest in Oceania. It is also the highest point between the Himalayas and the Andes and the highest island peak in the world.

That is quite a few ‘highest’s’.

Carstensz was first spotted in 1623 by the Dutch navigator Jan Carstensz. Way back then, Jan Carstensz was ridiculed for claiming to have seen a snow-capped mountain only four degrees south of the equator. His sighting wasn’t confirmed for several centuries, and it was only climbed in 1962, when a four man team led by Heinrich Harrer (best known for the first ascent of the Eiger’s North Face and for spending seven years in Tibet) bagged most of the peaks in the area.

Today, Carstensz has still only been summitted by a couple of hundred people.

“Some climbers lucky on Carstensz and some unlucky,” says ‘Two Fone’ Franky, formerly the leading guide on the peak, with 38 summits to his name.

One of the challenges to Carstensz is actually getting there.

Access to the peak requires a government permit. The mountain was closed to tourists and climbers between 1995 and 2005. As of 2006, access is possible through various adventure tourism agencies.

There are three main routes. The traditional way is hiking in through a jungle populated with leeches that stick like velcro and ex-cannibals wearing only penis gourds. It is a serious hike – about 100kms from the nearest town with airport, Timika, to the base camp and it takes about 4-5 days. The simplest way is to drive within spitting distance of Carstensz via the adjacent Grasberg gold and copper mine. However, the American owners of this mine are extremely sensitive to the political climate surrounding them that permission is not often granted. Remember this region is still full of strife – terrorist bombings, local uprisings and tribal wars to name just a few! The third route, and probably the most appealing to all but the most extreme of you adventurers out there, is to fly in to base camp in a helicopter. Although this certainly sounds the easiest this is not necessarily the case – it has been known for the pilot to ‘neglect’ to appear.

Puncak Jaya is one of the more demanding climbs in one version of the Seven Summits Peak bagging list. It is held to have the highest technical rating, though not the greatest physical demands of that list’s ascents. Base camp is located at 4,000m next to a large mirror lake. It is a few kilometres from Carstenz itself. It takes about an hour to reach the base of the peak where the dark silhouette of the vast rock wall leans over you. There are twelve pitches of easy scrambling leading to the ridge along which you then traverse for a kilometre to the summit itself.

There are a few surprises on the ridge – one is a gaping abyss. Twenty metres wide. 30 metres down a wafer-thin gangway spans the divide, but on either side of this the mountain falls away for hundreds of metres, all the way back to its base! Several ropes hang across the gap by which you are supposed to haul yourself over in what is called a Tyrolean traverse. Beyond this yawning adrenaline-pumping gap are two more notches that are both awkward and highly exposed. The ridge takes about an hour to traverse.

Although this mountain is really nothing more than a short rock scramble (!) it will test your patience, your climbing skills and your courage.

The summit is marked with a small rock dais complete with a plaque and a log book. The view is a spectacular panorama of peaks, glaciers, forests and lakes.

The price of climbing this peak will set you back about $15,000. However, for obsessive collectors that’s not an option – it is one of the seven prized continental summits, although, to some, this is debatable – there are 2 versions of the Seven Summits… I will clarify this at a later stage…