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Erik
Weihenmayer Reaches the Summit of Kosciusko
This Morning 9/5/02
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His Dream of Climbing
the Seven Summits Becomes A Reality
Joins many Mountaineers Worldwide Who Have Climbed the
Seven Summits
At 9:15 a.m. today,
Thursday, September 5, Erik Weihenmayer stepped onto
the summit of Mt. Kosciusko, the highest peak in
Australia, and joined an elite group of mountaineers
who have reached the continental summit of each of the
seven land continents. While Kosciusko is small by the
standards of the other summits, the mountain did not
yield its peak very easily. The team left at 3:30 a.m.
and climbed through rain, snow and frigid 50+mph winds
enroute to the top. Finally there, they broke out a
bottle of champagne, chilled by nature, and celebrated
this historic moment.
The dream began in
1995, when Erik became the first blind man to summit
McKinley. His wife, dad, and two brothers circled
above in a small plane that had struggled to get as
high as the 20,320’ summit. They watched from just
hundreds of feet away as Erik and five teammates took
their final steps onto North America’s icy summit.
Unfortunately, the expedition had begun with a tragedy
high up on the mountain, at 19,000’, where two
climbers were trapped in a raging snowstorm, just as
Erik’s team was poised at Base Camp to begin their
ascent. One perished. One of Erik's teammates asked a
rhetorical question: How are we any different than
those climbers? Erik pondered that question, until a
thought emerged: "I’ve been preparing for this climb
my whole life." This is the episode leading into "his
story", which he shares with us in his book,
TOUCH THE TOP OF THE WORLD.
Seven years have now
passed. So much has happened, most of it good. But it
wasn’t a cakewalk. Erik was turned back on his first
attempt on Aconcagua by 125 mph El Nino winds that
were blowing the climbers off their feet. On a
practice climb for Everest in the Himalayas, his team
faced its own emergency when a teammate fell 150’ in a
powerful storm, only to conduct a successful rescue
operation which further enhanced its cohesiveness and
confidence. When Erik decided to try Everest, he had
to fight through the naysayers, those who thought he
didn’t belong on the mountain, who thought he was
endangering his whole team. He finally concluded that
it would be better to try Everest and fail than never
to try it at all.
And the good far
outweighed the bad. Erik was married at 11,000’ on
Kilimanjaro. He and his team were congratulated on
their Everest success by President Bush in the Oval
Office. He carried the Olympic Torch for both the
Summer and Winter Games. He won national awards for
courage and achievement. He has become a leading
speaker on the corporate circuit. His family now
includes a beautiful 2-year old daughter. He has
followed his passions, and enjoyed the journey
thoroughly.
This love of
adventure, this desire to live life to the fullest,
influenced the Kosciusko descent. The original plan
had been to para-glide off the top, but strong and
gusty winds rendered that impossible. Instead, the
team decided to ski down from Kosciusko’s summit, an
exhilarating experience.
Upon reaching the
village of Thredbo, at the foot of Kosciusko, a
satellite media blitz awaited Erik, bringing news of
this successful quest to Good Morning America and to
TV stations in more than 20 metropolitan areas around
the country.
Along those with Erik
was
Eric Alexander and
Jeff Evans ...
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