Tom Tancredo: “Mr. Speaker, we offer this concurrent resolution today to honor a brave and courageous mountain climber from Golden…”

“Mr. Speaker, we offer this concurrent resolution today to honor a brave and courageous mountain climber from Golden, Colorado. On Friday, May 25, Erik Weihenmayer reached the summit of Mount Everest, one of several Americans to top the peak last month. However, Erik's accomplishments demand much more attention because he became the first blind person in the world to stand triumphant at 29,035 feet. When Erik was 13 years old, he lost his eyesight, and began rock climbing just 3 years later. Erik, a loving husband and father of a 1-year-old daughter, scaled the mountain by following the directions of his climbing mates, Erik Alexander of Vail, Colorado, Luis Benitez of Boulder, and Jeff Evans of Denver, and listening to bells that were attached to the climbers ahead of him. Just think of that for a few seconds. I am not sure I could close my eyes and even with directions follow them from here to the podium and 20 feet in front of me, yet Erik climbed the world's tallest mountain. Here is how Erik describes one section of the climb: "It is just 2,000 feet of jumbly ice where you are just weaving in and out of ice blocks. There are big crevasses, and you are either stepping over or jumping over them, and sometimes there are tiny little narrow bridges that you have to tiptoe across, or there are ladders that you are walking across." On May 25, Erik became the hero of not only the blind community but all Americans.”