The year Erik Weihenmayer became the first blind person to conquer the tallest mountain in the world.

Led by his close friends, and roped, Erik jumps crevasses to reach the summit.

When asked about this feat, he said, “I was confident I could do as well as anyone who goes to that mountain. And I knew I could turn back gracefully if necessary.”
Just 5 years before this achievement, 15 climbers died in a storm that trapped 3 groups near the summit. It was Everest worst death toll for a single year.

Despite the tragedy and being criticized as a potential liability for his team, Erik said:

“… I refused to be the weak link of the team. I wanted them to put their lives in my hands as I would put mine in theirs. I would carry my share. I would contribute as any other team member. I would not be carried up to the mountain and spiked on top like a football. If I were to reach the summit, I would reach it with dignity.”

Nicknamed Super Blind or Blindenheimer by close friends, this ex school teacher is not only the first blind person to summit Mount Everest but also one of only about 100 people to successfully summit the highest peaks of the world’s seven continents.

In 2004, Erik and Everest team members went to Tibet to train blind students on a climb to the Rombuk Glacier on the north side of Mt. Everest.

In a country that believes that blindness is a sign that evil spirits are present – Erik challenge the local superstitions.

Erik said, “These were blind kids who were told they had evil spirits inside them, kids who were tied to beds in dark rooms, kids who were sold in and out of slavery.”

Once treated like lepers, the pupils of Sabriye Tenberken (also blind) ultimately stood together at 21,500-feet – higher than any other team of blind people in history.

When he’s not climbing or at home with his wife, Ellie and daughter, Emma, Erik is usually at a speaking engagement. He still climbs approximately 50 days a year.

Flying over the mountains on Friday the 13th, the young men and their families who boarded the charter plane joked about the unlucky day when the plane’s wing hit the slope of the mountain and crashed.

On impact, 13 passengers were instantly dead while 32 others were badly wounded.

Hoping to be rescued, the survivors waited in the freezing -37C temperature, melting snow for drinks and sleeping side by side to keep themselves warm. Food was so scarce, everyone had to pool whatever food they can find for a rationed pool.

Desperation and Hunger
As their supply ran out, the survivor tried to eat strips of leather torned from their baggages. The brutal weather and high attitude of Andes had increased their bodies need for energy and food astronomically.

9 days after the crash, due to dire desperation and hunger, the survivors called for an important meeting. One member proposed that they eat the dead.

“If we don’t eat, we’ll die. If you want to see your family again, this is what you must do”, he said.

The 2 hours meeting ended with a conclusion. If any of them died in Andes, the rest had the permission to use the corpse as food.

No Hope
After 2 weeks, their hope of being found dashed when they found out via their radio transistor that the rescue effort was called off. Authority believed that the rescue was very dangerous and the chances of finding survivors too slim.

On the 60th day after the crash, Nando Parrado and 2 other friends decided to walk through the icy wilderness for help. By the time they left, Nando Parrado said, the crash site was “.. an awful place, soaked in urine, smelling of death, littered with ragged bits of human bone and qristle”.

Wearing 3 pairs of jeans and 3 sweaters over a polo shirt, he and his friends trekked the mountains with human flesh as their ration.

Knowing that they must search for rescue, the team endured frozen snow, exhaustion and starvation, walking and climbing for 10 days before finding their way to the bottom of the mountain.

The rescue
The team was finally helped by Chilean farmer who called the police for help. Parrado then guided the rescue team via a helicopter to the crash site.

On the 22nd December 1972, after enduring 72 brutal days, the world founds out that there were 16 survivors who cheated death, in the mountain of Andes. 8 of the initial survivors died when an avalanche cascaded down on them as they slept in the fuselage.

During the ordeal, Nando Parrado lost 40 kg of his weight. He lost half his family in the crash.

He is now a motivational speaker.

Reference: http://www.parrado.com/eng/main.html

As a small, unknown inventor during that time, Honda pawned his wife’s jewelry as the capital for his piston ring business only to seen it being destroyed.

Because cement and steel were scarce, he collected discarded gasoline cans from American jet fighters for a new factory. Not long after that, an earthquake destroyed the building.

Despite endless challenges, he pursued his seemingly impossible dreams.

Now, Honda is one of the largest automotive company in the world.