Blindsight

Erik Weihenmayer: [at podium] When I was 15 I went blind completely. I hated blindness. And I wasn't afraid to go blind and see darkness, see, I think that's myth. I was afraid to be swept to the sidelines and forgotten. To be obsolete. And it was a few months after that I got this newsletter in braille of a group taking blind kids rock climbing. And I thought, I mean I took my hand and ran it up the wall in my room, and I thought that sounds insane, I mean who would be stupid enough to take blind kids rock climbing. So I signed up.

[audience laughter]

Erik Weihenmayer: And there's one thing though that hasn't changed since the very first time I went rock climbing almost 20 years ago, and that's the reach. I mean 'cause the fear of climbing blind comes when I'm reaching out to the darkness when I don't know what I'm going to find. But I reached out that day and I found what I was looking for.