My Tibet Climbing Blind piece aired on NPR's Weekend Edition Saturday on May 14. Last September, I spent a month in Tibet on a team leading six blind Tibetan teenagers from Braille Without Borders, a Lhasa-based school for the blind on a two week expedition. Our goal was to reach the summit of Lhapki Ri - a 23,100-foot peak north side of Mt. Everest. You can listen to the story on NPR's website:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4652231
On December 22nd at Makor, I will a lead a discussion about our Climbing Blind expedition and Erik Weihenmayer's Everest ascent, following the screeing of "Farther Than the Eye Can See." The award-winning film is about Weihenmayer's Everest summit --he is the first blind person to summit Mount Everest and the Seven Summits (the highest peaks on the seven continents).
Weihenmayer's expedition placed 19 of 21 climbers at the summit at once, the largest number from one team to reach the top of Everest in a single day. The expedition also included the oldest climber ever to reach the summit. (Film Starts: 7:00pm & runs 75 min)
http://www.92y.org/shop/event_detail.asp?catalog=92y%5FCatalog&productid=T%2DMM5FD11
We're packing our bags and PowerBars and heading back to Tibet on September 23rd for the conclusion of Climbing Blind. On this month-long second trip, we will lead the six blind teenagers from Braille Without Borders, a Lhasa-based school for the blind, to the summit of Lhapki Ri -- a 23,100-foot peak north side of Mt. Everest. The kids have been training all summer and we've been plotting and planning our guiding savvy. So, stay tuned and find out what happens when nine "long noses," a pet name for Westerners in those parts, six Tibetan teenagers, 10 Sherpas and 30 yaks hit the mountains. Lhapka Ri, here we come!!!
I will post daily dispatches to the www.climbingblind.org site during our expedition and our photog Didrik will supply pretty pictures! Be sure to check it out.
On September 23rd, Erik Weihenmayer, the first and only blind climber to summit Mt. Everest and the “Seven Summits” – the tallest peaks in each of the seven continents – and his team will begin a journey to lead six blind Tibetan teenagers to the summit of Himalayan Lhakpa Ri (23,100-feet); a northern neighbor to Mt. Everest. The month-long expedition is the conclusion of a two-part project called Climbing Blind.
Says Weihenmayer: "There is a blurry line separating what the world sees as impossible yet what we know in our hearts to be fully possible. If I can find a way to reach out across race and culture, and shatter the boundaries which have been established through generations for the blind people of Tibet, and pass to them that same sense of joy and achievement with which I have been blessed, it will be the fulfilment of my climbing career.”
Last May, the U.S. team, (many of whom were members of Erik’s Everest climb) spent over two weeks in the mountains of Tibet teaching the two girls and four boys Erik’s specially adapted hiking and mountaineering techniques; such as using long trekking poles to feel the terrain and staying on course by following bear bells attached to a guide’s pack.
This fall’s excursion (September 23-October 22) will take the team through Mt. Everest Base Camp, Advanced Base Camp and ultimately on to the glacier-covered peak of Lhakpa Ri. If they are able to reach the top, they will stand higher than any summit outside of the Himalayas. Confident in the abilities of these 15 to 18-year-old teens, Weihenmayer is keenly aware that this will be a grueling – and exciting – adventure.
Says Kyla: 18, a team member – former student at Braille Without Borders – and owner of a massage clinic in Lhasa. “I heard from Sabriye about a blind man who climbed mountains. At first I was afraid and surprised, but later I thought we could also climb mountains. It is a chance for us to show that blind people do as much as normal people.”
ABOUT BRAILLE WITHOUT BORDERS
The six blind Tibetan teenagers are all students at Braille Without Borders, a Lhasa-based training center for the blind. Its founder, Sabriye Tenberken – who, like Erik went blind at age 13– runs the center with her partner, Paul Kronenberg and a dedicated teaching staff.
Says Tenberken: “After Erik reached the top of the world our Tibetan neighbor rushed into our center and told the kids about his success. Some of them first didn’t believe it but then there was a mutual understanding: If Erik could climb to the top of the world, we also can overcome our borders and show to the world that the blind can equally participate in society and accomplish great things.” braillewithoutborders.com
MEDIA
In addition to print articles appearing in national publications with spectacular photos, NBC’s Nightly News with Tom Brokaw will film the team members on their home turf as they depart for Tibet. The news program will air a second story after the team’s return. The journey will also be featured on (National Public Radio) NPR’s “Weekend Edition Saturday.”
The educational outreach component of this project is of the highest importance. Steven Haft, producer of many Hollywood blockbusters such as Dead Poets’ Society, is producing a documentary film on the adventure which will be released theatrically as well as tour prestigious film festivals. The film crew already captured powerful and emotional footage from the spring training trip. In addition, a fully accessible website with captioned photos, journals, and audio and video dispatches will allow young people around the world – both sighted and blind – to follow the expedition and interact with the team in real time. The website will contain lesson plans and will be connected to thousands of classrooms around the country by AOL At Schools.
To follow the adventure or learn more – be sure to explore: climbingblind.org
Contact: Stefani Jackenthal - stefjackstories@aol.com - 917-855-1594
Second Contact: Ed Weihenmayer - 904-321-1938
Three years to the day that Erik Weihenmayer, 35, (the first and only blind person to stand on the top of the world and complete the Seven Summits) and his team summited Mount Everest (May 24, 2001), they – and a few new recruits – arrived in Lhasa, Tibet. “The goal of this first trip was to prepare the kids to climb a big mountain,” said Weihenmayer of the two-part Climbing Blind (www.climbingblind.org) project to teach six blind Tibetan teenagers (14-17, boys and girls) rock climbing and mountaineering skills, then take them on a week-long trek into the Himalayas. The project will conclude this fall by leading the kids on a three-week ascent of Lhapka Ri, (23,100-ft.) on the north side of Everest.
Before setting into the mountains, the teens, students at Braille Without Borders, a Lhasa-based training center for the blind, received gear and education – about layering, loading packs, securely tying boots and donning crampons – and trekking training. They also learned to rock climb on a knobby granite face just outside of Lhasa.
The expedition began on May 29 at 10:15 a.m. from the prominent Tsurphu monastery at 14,700 feet. As is the practice, the kids and members of Climbing Blind paired up. They traipsed along narrow rocky paths, crossing small gurgling streams and grassy knolls, discovering the best method of travel. Some guides rang bear bells while giving verbal instruction from the front – using commands like “step high,” “narrow rocks,” “steep drop off left.” Others preferred to hold a common trekking pole with their mini-trekker. The five-hour day ended in the tiny yak-herding village of Leten (16,700 feet). “I was really blown away by the strength and resilience of the teens,” noted Weihenmayer. “It’s not surprising considering the tough lives they've lived.”
Following a day of mellow acclimation-hiking (and snowball fights), teams took off on the third morning with full bellies, full packs and full-on fervor for what would become eight-hours of gnarly rutted paths winding past yak farms and over countless snow-covered hummocks – topping out at Lasa La (17,500-ft.). The six inches of overnight snow melted in the beaming morning sun, turning deep yak-packed muddy grooves into ankle sucking divots. Boots slipped and slid and bodies stumbled. “I was a little bit tired and it was a little difficult to breathe,” admitted Kyla, a 17 year-old recent graduate of the school and multi-lingual massage therapist. “But this is so much fun and it’s a chance to show others that blind people can do anything – so I don’t mind.” Later the bright morning turned into afternoon hammer-the-face snow squalls and zero visibility.
Hiking through the stunning Nyechen Thanglhas on the fourth day went smoothly. But upon arriving at the base of Mt. Chitze – the destination for three days of glacier travel training – on day five, the team was surprised by a super-high snow line. “To reach it would have taken at least two-days of technical side hilling over loose scree and zig-zagging around gendarme rocks,” observed Weihenmayer, “with the prospect of finding dirty marginal snow.”
The trek was scrapped and rescheduled as a three-day glacier clinic for the fall. In the meantime, to give them the feel of glacier travel the kids, clad in full mountaineering fashion – plastic boots, crampons, harnesses and toting ice axes – shuffled up and down steep, scrub brush-peppered slopes connected by a rope.
“We went into this with the question, do the kids have what it takes to get to the top of a 7,000 meter peak?” said Erik. “I now know that all six have a real chance of standing on top when we attempt to climb Lhakpa Ri in October. (For more information: www.climbingblind.org).
