Parting Shot
CLIMBING FOR CONSERVATION
S
caling a 365-foot wall of jagged blue ice is a
daunting challenge for anyone—even more so
if you are blind or missing a leg. But Erik
Weihenmayer and Chad Jukes are used to daunting
challenges. Sightless since age 13, Weihenmayer, now
40, has since summited the highest mountain on every
continent, including Mount Everest—the only blind
person to do so. Jukes lost a lower leg to a bomb in Iraq
and climbs using a prosthesis equipped with a crampon.
In February, the two climbers, along with mountaineering
guide Mike Gibbs, took on one of the nation’s premier ice
SERAC ADVENTURE FILMS
climbs at Bridal Veil Falls outside Telluride, Colorado, to
celebrate TPL’s reopening of this iconic ice-climbing location. In 1974, ABC’s Wide World of Sports televised the first
ascent of the falls, an event considered by many to be the
start of modern ice climbing. In recent years, the mining
company that owns the land has kept it closed to
climbers, but TPL negotiated the reopening last
December. Weihenmayer frequently uses his fame to
support causes he believes in, and this was his second
major climb in support of TPL’s efforts to maintain
recreational access in Colorado and across the nation.
