Climbing blind: in Tibet, where the blind are treated as outcasts, six blind teenagers set an improbable record trekking through the Himalayas.

Erik Weihenmayer is the only blind man to reach the 29,035-foot summit of Mount Everest, the world's highest mountain. When he decided to teach six blind Tibetan teenagers how to climb, he returned to the scene of his greatest accomplishment. The goal this time: Lhakpa Ri, a peak next to Everest.

"It's the easiest 23,000-foot peak in the world," says Weihenmayer, 35. "Although that's like saying it's the most gentle piranha in the world."

Trekking through the Himalayas at 17,000 feet is dangerous enough for a sighted person, let alone for blind teenagers with little climbing experience, as was the case on this expedition, called Climbing Blind, completed last October.

Footpaths worn into loose rock on mountainsides can be as narrow as the width of two hiking boots, with thousand-foot drop-offs that can send any stumbling climber into an uncontrollable slide to icy glacial rivers.

Throughout the arduous two-week trek to Advance Base Camp at 21,000 feet, where the north face of Mount Everest towered to the right and Lhakpa Ri rose to the left, each of the blind teenagers had a sighted escort who trekked in front, using guiding methods ranging from a bell to a trekking pole held backward for them to hold on to.

Occasionally, they were warned of a falloff to the right or left, or a big step up or down, but they mastered a smooth pace without many verbal cues.

"When stones are kicked over the side, I can hear them falling very far and I know that it's dangerous," says Kyila, 18, one of two girls on the trip. Like most Tibetans, she does not have a last name. "But I'm not scared. I follow the sound of the bell."

CHALLENGING PREJUDICES

While temperatures at night reached 30 below zero with the wind chill--causing headlamp batteries and water bottles to freeze solid--the teenagers never complained and did not appear intimidated.

They were not strangers to adverse conditions. Tibetans treat the blind as outcasts because they believe they are possessed by demons or have committed evil in a prior life.

Tashi, 19, was sold by his father to a Chinese couple. They beat him when he did not make enough money as a beggar, so he ran away at 11 and survived on the streets of Lhasa, Tibet's capital.

Luckily, Tashi had found a loving home at Braille Without Borders, a local vocational school for the visually impaired.

The school was founded in 1998 by Sabriye Tenberken, a blind German expatriate. When she came to Tibet to study. Tenberken was shocked at how Tibetans treated their visually impaired. She discovered that a Tibetan Braille language did not even exist. So she created one.

Tenberken wrote to Weihenmayer after hearing of his Everest ascent, asking if he would meet her students. Weihenmayer felt compelled to do more.

"Everest was a great achievement, but I wanted to add to what I did," says Weihenmayer. "These kids haven't been born into all the opportunity I've had. I wanted to be that opportunity for these kids."

The exhaustion of trekking to 21,000 feet forced setbacks when three students developed altitude sickness and cerebral edema, a life-threatening swelling of the brain caused by low oxygen levels. They were sent to a lower altitude to recover.

TEAMWORK

For the remaining three, continuing on to Lhakpa Ri proved too ambitious a climb, and the expedition was modified. Rope teams of guides and students explored the East Rongbuk Glacier, which bridges Lhakpa Ri and Mount Everest.

Negotiating fissures and mulans, glacier holes caused by melting water, proved challenging enough--and taught the students valuable lessons. "Four people connected by one rope has a symbolic value," says Tenberken. "It reinforces the concept of teamwork."

The accomplishment of climbing to 21,000 feet remains significant--all six teenagers hold a record for reaching the highest altitude of any blind children in the world.

Kimi Puntillo reported this article from Tibet for The New York Times.