2007 Newsletters
Sign Up for No Barriers on June 28-July 2
Jan 27th, 2007Sign Up for No Barriers on June 28-July 2
The No Barriers festival will be held in Squaw Valley (CA) from June 28 through July 2. Registration is formally closed, but sign-ups can still be effected via Erik or Ed Weihenmayer, in response to this News Release. No Barriers was conceived by a group of friends with a passion for the beautiful natural places of the world. Each of their lives was profoundly shaped by the mountains, and each in turn used the natural world to shatter barriers about what is possible. In 2003, they formed No Barriers USA, a not-for-profit organization with a goal of promoting innovative ideas, approaches, and assistive technologies which help people with disabilities push through their own personal barriers to live full and active lives. No Barriers is not just a name; it is the attitude of reaching out and finding ways to accomplish one's dreams, no matter what it takes.
Here is a partial list of the cutting-edge technologies represented at No Barriers. Participants will be dazzled not only by the technologies, demonstrations, and clinics, but by the amazing pioneers themselves who have all shattered barriers in their fields using their sense of innovation and discovery.
Mike May of Sendero Inc, a blind technologist, will lead a tour for blind people using the talking GPS which he invented.
Hugh Herr, a double-leg-amputee and scientist at Harvard's prestigious Prosthetics Laboratory, will be demonstrating the latest high-tech prosthetic legs with computer-controlled knee and ankle joints which he has developed. This technology is enabling above-the-knee amputees to walk for the first time; and some sprinters with sophisticated protheses are actually winning races.
Jerry Kerr, founder of Disability Rights Advocates For Technology, is bringing twenty Segways for introductory Segway clinics for paraplegics.
Darol Kubacz, a paraplegic athlete who just attempted Kilimanjaro, will demonstrate his adaptation to his One-Off mountain hand cycle, an innovative mountain bike specially designed for paraplegics. Darol has added a crank and pulley system to get him up very steep surfaces.
Dr. Pete Rieke will be demonstrating the Snow Pod, a hand-cranked vehicle he invented which enables paraplegics to climb mountains. Pete has led successful, all-paraplegic expeditions using the Snow Pod to the summits of Mt. Rainier, Shasta, and Hood.
Challenged Athletes Foundation will be conducting running clinics for leg amputees hosted by Major Dave Rozelle, the first disabled soldier to return to active duty in Iraq.
Aimee Arnoldussen will be demonstrating an amazing device called Brainport, developed by Wicab, Inc, which some day may help blind people to "see." Visual information is collected from a head-mounted video camera and sent to a control box, which translates the visual information into an electrical pattern for display on the tongue. The brain then interprets the pulses and creates "artificial vision." Imagine a device like this helping a blind skier to follow a guide down the ski slope.
Karen Darke, an adventurer from Scotland, also a paraplegic, will speak and show slides of her skiing expedition across the Greenland Ice Cap.
Mark Wellman, the first paraplegic to climb El Capitan, and Erik will be conducting adaptive rock climbing clinics. Mark will also introduce his new film, Crank It Up, the adventure of a team of paraplegics mountain biking the White Rim Trail through Utah.
Various organizations will be conducting adaptive clinics on kayaking, scuba diving, and fly fishing.
Disabled artists will be exhibiting their art at the Equipment Fair and will be conducting introductory workshops.
Guidedogs for the Blind will be running guidedog Open House demonstrations.
Disabled Sports USA and the Wounded Warrior Project are bringing 20+ disabled veterans to the festival.
Mountains Without Barriers, which documents the 2005 No Barriers festival in Cortina, Italy, in the heart of the Dolomites, has been named a Gold Winner by the Health and Science Communications Association. It previously won an award at the Boulder Film Festival. Michael Brown, Everest teammate of Erik, is its producer.
Accessible Adventures on the Travel Channel on Friday Night, June 8
Tune into the Travel Channel at 7:00 p.m. Eastern this Friday, June 8 for a 60-minute special, Accessible Adventures, which highlights so-called disabled people enjoying the time of their lives in various outdoor adventures. Erik's Leading the Way expedition on the Super Inca Trail last summer is one of the features; Alysha Jeans, a blind high school student and participant in this climb, is a principal focus. (Seewww.globalexplorers.org for more on Leading the Way.) Featured also is PV Scaturro, Erik's expedition leader on Everest, and his son Adam, a paraplegic, rafting down the Colorado River through Westwater Canyon.
BlindSight Playing in Australia
BlindSight screens at the Sydney Film Festival on June 10 at 2:20 p.m. and on June 12 at 12:15 p.m. at the State Theatre. This is a prestigious event which will mark the film's premiere Down Under. Sybil Robson, producer of the documentary which was the "audience choice" in both Los Angeles and Berlin, will attend each screening and take questions afterwards. If you are in the Sydney area, don't miss this powerful award-winning film.
Kudos
* Luis Benitez, who first summited Everest in 2001 as part of Erik's team which put 19 climbers on top, the most ever from one team to summit Everest in a single day, has reached the top of the world for the 6th time.
* Michael Brown, award-winning cinematographer who filmed Erik's Everest ascent in 2001, has summited Everest for the 4th time, each time while filming an expedition at the Everest summit. This year he's Director of Mountain Photography for MacGillivray Freeman Films' latest IMAX production, Return to Everest 3D.
* Kevin Cherilla, base camp manager for Erik's 2001 Everest expedition who made a spectacular contribution to the many successes of the team, achieved his own Everest summit this week. Gavin Attwood of HighSights Presentations, on the same team as Kevin, had two consecutive oxygen bottles malfunction on the final summit push out of Camp 3 (Tibet side); and unfortunately, because of this problem, had to give up his summit attempt at 28,000'. This is particularly difficult because Gavin had been so strong on the ascent up to that very point
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