[nagdu] Blog entry about hiking with a Seeing Eye dog

Tue Nov 27 15:24:14 UTC 2012

FYI. The following blog entry posted by Sue Martin at:

http://outofthewhirlpool.com/2012/11/commentary-on-soldiers-to-summits-progr
am/

talks about hiking with her Seeing Eye dog and her perspective on blindness.

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Commentary on “Soldiers to Summits” program

By smartin on November 26, 2012in personal

On the following web page:

http://www.stripes.com/mountain-climbing-program-helps-wounded-vets-overcome
-barriers-1.198287#.ULFZf788wWw.twitter

is an article about a wonderful program called Soldiers to Summits which is
run by the non-profit group, No Barriers USA. The program takes military
veterans who have disabilities to scale mountains all over the world with
the assistance of experienced guides.

Although I have done technical climbing such as this, most of my mountain
climbing these days is on mountains that can be hiked, without the need of
ropes or climbing gear. The experience has all of the same elements as the
mountains these military veterans are climbing.

There’s the unknown. When my husband, dog, and I begin a climb to the top
of a mountain we never know what to expect. There’s the challenge of rock
faces that require that I release my dog to her own devices because I have
to go hand over hand. There’s the satisfaction of making it up one of these
rock faces to find her right there waiting for me. There’s the
perseverance, the putting one foot in front of the other that gets me, step
by step, closer to my goal. There’s the intricate, almost intimate,
communication between the three of us. And there’s the triumph of reaching
a summet with my beloved dog and the man who makes these journeys with me.

In the article on the web page about Soldiers to Summets is the following:

But for Iraq War vet Steve Baskis, the climb up the 20,100-foot Lobuche Peak
in Nepal didn’t end with a soul-stirring view of the Himalayas. While his
fellow military veteran climbers could gaze out at Mount Everest and the
majestic valley below, Baskis was in darkness.

“It is a painful thing to be blind,” said Baskis, who lost his sight to a
roadside bomb blast in 2008. “I miss a lot of things. I miss being able to
see campfires, watching the snow fall, facial expressions. It’s something
that I can adapt to and push past, but I hate being blind.”

I wish I could tell him that this will change. Over time, all of this will
change. When I reach the summit of a mountain blindness, any sense of loss,
any thoughts of things I can’t do disappears. My spirit soars out into the
vastness before me. The wide open feeling of standing on a mountaintop is
pure glory.

In time, “Darkness” disappears from vocabularies. Thoughts of what you
can’t do anymore vanish. Blindness becomes simply a part of who you are.
Instead of saying to yourself, “I hate being blind,” you will find
yourself saying, “Life is beautiful, full of challenge, love, a wonderful
thing.

← Climbing ‘Out of the Whirlpool’

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Photography: Jim Martin