So you think you're a badass?

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Imagine being a healthy boy. Now imagine waking up one day and you cannot see...at 13.

He came to know it as retinoschisis, a disease that effectively stole his vision, piece by piece.

Just a kid, blindsided by life's sucker punch. Most would curl up in a ball and wallow, right?

Not this guy.

This was just the first obstacle in a life that would be defined by conquering the seemingly impossible.

Wrestling, that primal test of strength and will, became his outlet. He grappled his way through high school, even making it to the national championships.

But wrestling mats were a playground compared to what lay ahead.

Picture this: vertical rock faces, thousands of feet high, the kind that make your palms sweat just looking at them.

This newly minted blind kid decided that wasn't enough of a challenge.

He wanted to climb them.

This was hardcore mountaineering.

We're talking ice picks, crampons, the whole nine yards. He learned to 'see' the rock with his hands, feeling for holds, memorizing every nook and cranny.

His teammates weren't carrying him; they were climbing alongside him, relying on his skill and judgment.

Then came the big one.

Everest.

The roof of the world. Twenty-nine thousand feet of brutal cold, oxygen-thin air, and enough hazards to kill you ten times over.

Most sighted climbers don't make it.

But this blind dude?

He summited.

Think about that for a second.

Blind.

On Everest.

Not led, not dragged, but climbed. Every step, every handhold earned through grit and sheer, unadulterated will.

The man's a beast.

Used a bell on his teammate's backpack to gauge distance, felt those vibrations in the snow to anticipate changes in terrain.

He faced avalanches, frostbite, the whole gamut of mountain horrors, and laughed in their face.

This wasn't about proving anything to anyone.

This was a middle finger to fate, a declaration that blindness wouldn't define him.

He went on to climb the Seven Summits, the highest peak on each continent. He kayaked the Grand Canyon, trekked across Tibet.

He wasn't just living; he was thriving, pushing the boundaries of what was thought impossible.

So who was this badass?

Erik Weihenmayer, the first person to climb Everest blind.

A name synonymous with defying limits, with proving that the human spirit, when backed into a corner, can achieve the extraordinary.