Climbing Blind: A story of trust and confidence - Writing Wednesday

Hello everybody and welcome back to another blog post, 

Well, we've finished all 5 series of Line of Duty. It was a great series that I would recommend anyone to watch. The script writer who came up with that plot has got a heck of an imagination. Who would have thought a series about corrupt police officers would be amazing? I hope series 6 comes out soon, despite the current climate. If you want to find out more about this series then you can read my blog post about it here. It also talks about Wallander, which is a "Nordic Noir" series that we've also finished recently. It's really good and I would also recommend watching it.

However, now that we'd finished our favourite series, me and my family were stuck on what to watch so we decided to flick through a few documentaries to see what we liked. I saw this documentary with an interesting title and we all decided to watch it. The documentary was called Climbing Blind and it was about exactly what it said in the title. It was about a blind climber called Jesse Dufton, who attempted to lead a climbing expedition on the East Face Route of the Old Man of Hoy. Jesse was born with a genetic condition that meant his retina slowly deteriorated as he grew older. He was always climbing and challenging himself when he was young but the Old Man of Hoy was his next big challenge. Lying on the northernmost point in the UK and on the Orkney archipelago of Scotland, the Old Man of Hoy is a tall and slender sandy cliff that is located on the edge of the ocean and it is a stronghold for British climbers who are attempting their first climb. One climber managed to successfully reach the summit at the age of 11 and has gone onto doing climbing professionally. Sounds practically daunting for a climber who is almost completely visually impaired, doesn't it? 

Posing Productions

Although it sounds absolutely crazy, Jesse was fearless. He learnt to use his other senses to help him with this challenge. One of the senses he used the most was touch because he learnt how to grip certain rock faces and find the right place to hold onto. He also used his hearing when he was listening to his wife Molly, who was his climbing partner, to help guide him through his climbing. This obviously required a lot of trust because a wrong movement could prove fatal. However, you could tell that Jesse and Molly had a good relationship and Molly was very clear when she guided her husband. It also helped that Jesse was very determined and confident in his nature because that spurred him on through the challenge.  

There were a lot of tricky sections on the climb that required risky manoeuvres from Jesse. One of which was the Coffin pitch, which was this narrow gap in the cliff that Jesse had to climb through. Once he reached the top part of it, he had to lurch sideways on a corner and make his way out. There was also a section where Jesse was climbing completely without Molly and he had to rely on his sense of touch, in order to find suitable holes and to feel for bare rock, to ensure that he wasn't going off track and climbing on rocks that had lichen on them. There was a time when the camera man wanted to guide Jesse and he did end up telling him one time that he was going slightly off route but the rest of the section, Jesse accomplished himself.

Although it was difficult, Jesse and his team never gave up and continued to climb through the tough surfaces. There is a science behind determination and confidence and in my opinion, it only really takes a change in mindset to begin achieving great things. I think that's the reason why Jesse was able to continue. 

I think that this is an important message. There are a lot of people in the world who say that they can't do something. I'm guilty of doing it myself sometimes because there are times when we can feel a bit defeated by certain challenges and difficulties. However, I think that now is the time when we should try to say that we can do something. If you've got that positive mindset and that determination, then there's a lot more that you can achieve. Although it can seem impossible at times, you can achieve what you want to achieve if you really put your mind and heart into it. If you say that you can't do something then that is probably going to make you not do it. However, if you begin saying that you can do something, it will begin triggering a change in your mind and it's only going to force you to go out there and do it. So embrace the fear and try to keep going.

Despite being blind, Jesse successfully led the climb and reached the top. He managed to reach the top of the cliff even when other people and experienced climbers, thought that he couldn't. If that is possible, then you should be able to achieve what you want to. 

I hope you enjoyed this post! This was an absolutely amazing adventure story about trust, confidence, and determination that lead to Jesse's successful ascent. If you want to find out more about it, I'll leave a link to Jesse's blog post below, where he talked about getting down off the Old Man of Hoy. It's really interesting.

Have you watched Climbing Blind? Are there any other amazing climbers that you've heard of? Let me know in the comments below and I'll be sure to reply to them. I ♡ hearing from you!

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See you next time, 

Bye, 

XOX, Juliette

Video channel links:

Posing Productions

Jesse Dufton's blog post:

Getting down off the Old Man of Hoy

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