Blindsight

D: Lucy Walker

The challenge of climbing Mount Everest is a daunting task for even the most experienced climber. Now imagine the challenge it holds for six blind teenagers from Tibet who have been told nothing from the time they were born except that they are “blind idiots” and “blind fools.” That is until the German educator Sabriye Tenberken (also blind) opens the first school for the blind in Tibet and takes in the local nonsighted children. After Erik Weihenmayer, the world’s first blind man to reach the top of Mount Everest, visits the school, he is so inspired by the children that he decides to set forth on the adventure of leading them as high up Mount Everest as possible. The experience not only instills life-altering confidence and a sense of achievement in the children – as well as opening their minds to the opportunities they never thought they had – but Weihenmayer, Tenberken, and the guides end up learning as much from the children as they do from the adults.


6:30pm, Alamo South Lamar

This article appears in March 16 • 2007.

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