Erik Weihenmayer's 'Blind To Failure'

“A trans-like state settles over your efforts, the climb becomes a clear eyed dream.” Stated Krakauer in The Devils Thumb. Mountain climbing has become a popular interest for thrill-seekers in modern times. It is an immensely challenging activity, involving strength, determination, and the proper mindset. There are many accounts of mountain climbers heroically reaching the summit of mountains, but none more striking than that of Everest and The Devils Thumb. These are gut wrenching, first hand accounts of some of the greatest feats performed in mountain climbing history, although they are each different in their own way. Krakauer was climbing to find himself amongst the frozen rocks and chest deep snow, and Weihnmayer climbed to push his limits, and to accomplish what many thought to be the impossible.

As for the first difficulty, himself, he is battling himself between doing what would be good for his father’s business, becoming the youngest to reach the peak of the highest mountain in the world, known as Sagarmatha by the Nepalese, or Mt. Everest as we know it. It was either him, or a boy called Sun-Jo, who was six days older

Despite his impressive record he had never attempted anything close to the scale of Everest, whose summit is at an extremely dangerous altitude. He even admits to his relative inexperience with high altitude saying, “Truth be told, I’d never been higher than 17,200 feet--not even as high as Everest Base Camp”(28). Krakauer also mentions how he has gotten out of shape over the years partially because of the lack of climbing in his life, making him even less prepared for the assent. Krakauer shows a definite fear of such a high mountain, referring to climbers who have perished in the past. He states that, “Many of those who died had been far stronger and possessed vastly more high-altitude experience than I.” (28). Even though Krakauer’s experience may be more relevant to the Everest assent than some of the other tourist climbers, it is nowhere near the level needed to be considered an elite climber.

In life we carry a lot of emotions, burdens and luggage. There is a quote from a great poet that reads. “It is not in the stars to hold our destiny but in ourselves” in “Things They Carried”. The author Tim o Brien, creates a story about a soldier and his life after the war and struggles that he has to go through and the people around him seem to go through. Tim Obrien writes this story, as a 43 years old man which is recalling his previously experiences as a foot solider in Vietnam. “On their feet they carried jungle boots-2.1 pounds- and Dave Jensen carried 3 pairs of socks” (Obrien 270). The theme revealed in “The Things They carried” is that you can keep your spirits alive by moving and carrying your

“You can never tell who the mountain will allow and who it will not.” The novel “Peak” by Roland Smith shows you the thrilling journey of climbing the tallest mountain in the world. Climbing a mountain for several months doesn’t just take physical strength, but also mental strength. The story takes you through Peak Marcello’s journey to become the youngest person in the world to climb Mt.Everest. “Peak” follows a theme of love, family, and most of all survival.

There are many people who went through challenges like these three people who have been through a lot like Ernesto Galarza, Farah Ahmedi, and Annie Johnson. These three people have been through a lot of challenges. The challenge that Ernesto had faced was that had gone to a new school and had to learn english and Farah Ahmedi had to cross the Pakistan border then Annie Johnson had to raise her own children by herself. However, all three shared an ability to accomplish to overcome their challenges to accomplish their goals.

The expedition guides show arrogance and pride while trying to climb Mount Everest. At one point Scott Fischer states that he has "built a yellow brick road to the summit" (Krakauer 86). Fischer has great pride in his ability to climb Everest he developed arrogance towards the mountain. It is foolish to think that someone

Many people have dreamed of climbing the tallest mountain on earth, Mount Everest. However one must possess certain physical and mental attributes to accomplish this giant feat. “Courage is not having the strength to go on: it's going on when you don't have the strength.” Ed Viesturs knows first-hand what having courage is all about although you’ve used all your strength. He kept going to reach his goal even after he faced life threatening obstacles.

Have you ever wondered what kind of hardships come with climbing the tallest mountain in the world before? Expectantly, the book Peak by Roland Smith and the movie Everest have a lot of similarities with some exceptionally prominent differences. From personal conflict and character conflict to the general aspect of climbing Mt. Everest, the book and the movie explore all different types of similarities and differences. Being similar, in both the movie and the book, the mountain always decides. The morals were constant and everyone experiences the same deal in similar ways. One significant difference came between Peak, the main character in the book, and Rob(5th summit attempt), the main character in the movie.

Overcoming adversity is hard, but these people survived the toughest obstacles that life could throw at you. Adversity is something everyone goes through, but these are extraordinary cases of what people went through.This crowd of people overcame adversity in three ways, only caring about what they thought, being creative, and facing their problems.

“Adversity has the effect of eliciting talents which in prosperous circumstances would have lain dormant.” What the Roman poet Horace was saying was that when there is an obstacle in our way, our true colors will radiate. I could not agree more. When we as human beings feel passionate about achieving a goal, we may learn something new of ourselves, maybe a new trait that we did not know we possessed, when we reach new heights we did not know we could push ourselves towards. Challenges are similar to tests. Challenges are faced every day, but how we respond to them determines how strong we really are. Prime examples are superheroes and students that move dramatically.

First,in ways, people overcome obstacles is keeping a positive attitude since when you have a positive attitude you are harder to discourage.An example of positive attitude while facing adversity would be in the text “A work in progress” where Aimee Mullin faces her adversity with humor like when she broke her wooden leg and while all the other people in that room were freaking out all she could think about was that her parents were going to kill her.I chose this example because out of all the stories we read in class about facing adversity Aimee Mullin struck me as the most positive about her obstacle.It’s important because it shows my point that with a positive attitude you don’t get discouraged as easily and like Aimee Mullin you can achieve whatever you wish no matter your adversity.Another example from “A work in progress” that shows positive attitude would be when Aimee Mullin got her new legs and was stating all the good qualities about her legs instead of being like oh I don’t this about them or

What's The importance of overcoming adversity? why should you try? Read this and you will change your mind on the way you see yourself or think of yourself.

Quite often you hear that we do not grow without failure; that failure is what teaches us a new skill and how to then succeed. I was not familiar with the quote, “adversity has the effect of eliciting talents which in prosperous circumstances would have lain dormant,” by Horace, however I think this quote is true. To me, this means that when someone has some kind of disadvantage, that person can use the challenge to his advantage through self-reflection, determination, and hope. Every person faces an obstacle, usually many and of various degrees of challenge, and although you cannot control the situation, you can control your reaction. Those of us that learn from adversity take our time to figure out how to approach the problem in a new manner. We recognize that one barrier is not a reason to abandon our course. We think outside the box for how to overcome the challenge. We learn from the first failure and we regroup for the next approach. Failure teaches you how to define yourself rather than how others define you. All four of the

What is life? Life consists of experiences, challenges, and achievements; all of which are building blocks that essentially create ones path to success. In one’s lifetime they can experience tough and difficult challenges. Sometimes these challenges become unbearable, especially when the odds are against you. However, going against all odds is something everyone is capable of doing, and to overcome these challenges everyone needs to have a “never quit” attitude in life. If we develop it, we'll overcome quite a bit.