Touch the Top of the World A Blind Man's Journey to Climb Farther Than the Eye Can See

by Weihenmayer, Erik

• ISBN13: 9780525945789
• ISBN10: 0525945784
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2001-02-01
• Publisher: E P Dutton

Summary

This is the incredible story of world-class climber Weihenmayer, from the terrible diagnosis that foretold the loss of his eyesight to his dream to climb mountains and finally his quest to reach each of the Seven Summits. Timed to coincide with Erik's ascent of Everest, funded by the National Federation of the Blind.

Author Biography

Erik Weihenmayer is a world-class athlete: acrobatic skydiver, long distance biker and marathon runner, skier, mountaineer, ice climber, and rock climber. Erik was the first blind man to summit McKinley, scale the infamous 3,300-foot rock wall of El Capitan and then Argentina's Aconcagua. He was married to his longtime sweet-heart at 13,000 feet on Kilimanjaro. He is on course to reach all Seven Summits, the highest peak on each continent. He lives in Colorado with his wife and daughter.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	ix
Introduction: McKinley's Kahiltna Glacier	1	(8)
Quasimodo	9	(24)
A World In-Between	33	(15)
Helplessness	48	(14)
Faint Recognition	62	(17)
Blind Warriors	79	(20)
Wizard, the Chick Magnet	99	(10)
Flailing to Independence	109	(16)
Perceptions	125	(10)
Thirty Sets of Eyes	135	(7)
Blind Faith	142	(13)
Preparation	155	(14)
Zero Zero	169	(31)
``Big'' Changes	200	(10)
Uhuru	210	(11)
Moving Through Darkness	221	(22)
The Nose	243	(15)
The Slag Heap	258	(16)
I Did Not Die	274	(6)
The Song of the Sirens	280	(21)
Epilogue	301	(4)
Special Thanks	305