Are you kidding me? You are going to do what? You crazy? or, what!!?? Etc, etc, etc.
Excellent! Great! It's wonderful you are doing this. Let me know when you are doing this and I'll support you. Etc, etc, etc.
I've gotten comments on both sides of the fence. Most are incredulous that I'm even contemplating this. The very next question they ask is, "Who is going with you?" As if I couldn't do it myself and that I need to do it with someone else. Yes, no worries, my son Spencer is coming along with me. He is going to be my guide and we will be doing this together as a father and son team.
What gave me the idea of even climbing any mountain you may ask? It started out with two friends, Henry and Reza, taking me up the Grouse Grind. Five years later and I am still doing the Grind every Saturday morning from the opening of the Grind to the public to its closing for the season in the Fall. I have found it to not only be mentally and physically challenging but also an exhilarating goal achieved every time I've reached the top. It has been spiritually and mentally therapeutic as well. I have learned many life lessons from the Grind that I will be sharing throughout this Blog as you share my journey on the way to Kilimanjaro in September (specific dates to be finalized).
Climbing the Grouse Grind was as far as I'd ever thought of mountain climbing. It was tough enough as it is when one has vision but much more challenging without vision. My first year on the Grind was not too bad. I still had some vision and was able to climb it in about one and a half hours but as my vision began to deteriorate I began to slow down and am now only able to climb the Grind in about 2 hrs or so due to my less than 1% vision left. Thus I was totally surprised when someone pointed me to Erik Weihenmayer, the first blind guy who summitted Everest. You can check out his achievement at http://www.touchthetop.com. It's an amazing story. It piqued my interest on how he did it. There was even a movie made of this achievement called Touch The Top. His youtube videos talked of his journey to climb some of the tallest mountains in the world before Everest and the life lessons he'd learned along the way. When he came down the mountain one of the things he did was to bring blind kids to Everest's base camp.
That intrigued me. It put a whole new meaning to the phrase "The Blind Leading the Blind." I thought that one day I wouldn't mind helping with such a cause. Help expand the world for blind kids.
I was jerked back to reality by a fellow Grouse Grinder (mentioned in my Blog profile) that I should probably climb Kilimanjaro first before trying Everest, given my situation. Especially since I hadn't climbed any serious major mountain in the world as yet.
Kilimanjaro? I didn't even know where Mount Kilimanjaro was. That's when another friend, Eric Muir, pointed me to its location and mentioned that with the proper preparation, I could probably make it to the top. He'd climbed it himself and thought the only challenge was going to be altitude sickness as opposed to it being a "technical" climb needing full mountaineering training and equipment. He'd also pointed me to an expedition of 25 climbers, of whom 9 were blind kids, that had summited Kilimanjaro in 2009.
Check out the following links:
25 Team Expedition with Blind Kids and the youngest blind kid who'd summitted was 13 years old:
See also:
That piqued my interest even more. If a 13 year old blind kid can do it, why can't I? In fact, as I was doing more research into the mountain itself, I came across Esther and Martin Kafer, the oldest couple who'd summitted Kilimanjaro.
Check out their youtube video, Esther and Martin Kafer:
Huffington post article on oldest couple from Vancouver to climb Kilimanjaro:
That did it! Blind kids summitting Kilimanjaro, oldest couple summitting Kilimanjaro and Eric, amongst many others I've met to date have said it can be done, even with little to no vision.
Thus the challenge began. First to get past the mental block that it is a crazy idea, that I can't do it given my situation, then comes the decision and commitment to do it with Spencer's support. We're targeting September to do the climb. Now begins the next difficult phase, preparation and training.
Cheers,
Bill (The Blind Guy who thinks he can see.) and Spencer (The Guide)
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