22 Quotes by Erik Weihenmayer

The key is to really have tremendously high expectations and to teach kids how to be self sufficient and confident and give them the skills that they need to succeed.

What a thrill to be able to say that you had a contribution in the life of someone – a young person, perhaps, who is trying to take a look at the possibility of their own lives and find out what they are good at and you can help steer their career.

I have a variety of friends I climb with. But the common thing is I trust all of them. They’re solid climbers, the sort of people I trust to know what they’re doing.

When I went blind at 13, I realized that I wasn’t going to be a good baseball or basketball player like I enjoyed before. It forced me to look beyond the obvious, to things that I could still do well.

Maybe people, maybe the world writes things off as impossible a little too quickly, when they really aren’t – when they just haven’t reached out and figured out how to utilize their resources to the fullest degree or created pioneering systems in their lives.

You can’t have self confidence without some real skills that enable you to be successful.

When I’m following someone, I’m listening to a bear bell strapped to their packs. When I’m leading on a climb, like on a rock, I like to feel my way through it on my own, so I know the tricky moves and where to place gear.

I like to skin up ski resorts and, for me, being blind, that’s nice because it’s wide open, with no avalanche danger.

It’s kind of too movie-like to say, “When I started climbing, I knew I wanted to climb Everest some day.” Instead, I just started rock climbing as a kid, when I was 16, and then I started teaching and a buddy of mine started taking me out.