insight
be swept to the sidelines to listen to life go by from a dark place?
And I know it sounds negative, but that fear motivated me to not ever let myself be left out. I made a decision that I was going to get in the middle of everything, try anything and everything.
Do you think that nature and the outdoors helped you come to terms with going blind? One hundred percent. For me the outdoors was transfor- mative. There was a weekend when this blindness center was taking blind kids rock climbing. I read the announce- ment in braille and I said, I’m going to sign up. It’s totally insane, trying to stick to a rock face, but I’m going to try. I remember feeling my way up the rock with my hands
and feet as my eyes, smelling this beautiful pine forest, reaching the top for the first time. And I thought, this is the adventure of my life. I thought my life was over, but it’s just starting. The outdoors put me on this wonderful trajectory of growth and evolution. The greatest things in my life have come from the outdoors.
Can you describe a particularly inspiring moment you’ve had in nature? I don’t know how I’d limit it to one thing! But I remem- ber sitting at Camp 2 on Everest and waking up to a big storm. The snow was coming down and it had a beautiful, soft sound. Every time I heard the thunderclap it was like sonar, this echo across the mountains. And for me, being blind, I could sort of hear the mountains through that flash of sound—this brief moment of being able to see the entire mountain chain of the Himalayas. I experience the beauty of the outdoors in my own way:
even though I can’t see it, I’m touching it, I’m hearing it, I’m sensing it. Sound has a feel and a density to it. When you’re up high on a mountain like one of the seven sum- mits, sound seems to move out infinitely through space. It’s awe-inspiring. It’s like you’ve been swallowed by sky. You’re just a tiny little speck in this giant, empty sky.
The outdoors put me on this wonderful trajectory of growth and evolution.
The greatest things in my life have come from the outdoors.
You’ve spent a lot of time in the mountains, but your next big adventure is on the water—kayaking the Grand Canyon. How is whitewater different from your previous undertakings? In the mountains, when the wind is howling and you’re getting sketched out, you can go back. If you’re skiing and you’re in over your head, you can stop. In rock climbing you can put in a piece of gear and you can clip in and hang and take a moment. But when you’re kayaking, you’re reacting to rapids, to waves smashing you from every direction. And you can’t stop—you have to perform. I’ve never done something in the outdoors that’s required so much quick thinking in the midst of so much chaos. It’s a sport that I enjoy, but it’s definitely still pretty scary to me.
How do you navigate the rapids without sight? I’m always developing alternative systems in order to func- tion and flourish in the outdoors as a blind person. For ex- ample, when I’m climbing ice I’m using my ice tools to tap the ice and listen for the sound to know whether it’s going to be good or not. But it also depends on working with my team, great people who can think nimbly and communicate the things I need to know. When I kayak I have a person behind me talking to me via radio, saying turn left, turn right, hold your line, charge, brace right, brace left. That person has to be an amazing kayaker, because they’re not even thinking about their own kayaking—they’re just looking at me as this little remote- control blind guy going down the rapids. If I’m a foot to
30 · LAND&PEOPLE · SPRING/SUMMER 2014
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68