Courtesy Erik Weihenmayer DOWNHILL RUN: Eric Alexander, left, an adaptive ski guide at Vail, instructs Erik Weinhenmayer on a run at Vail. Courtesy Erik Weihenmayer HIGH ADVENTURE: Erik Weihenmayer had to cross the dangerous Khumbu Icefall 10 times during his ascent of Mount Everest. Courtesy Erik Weihenmayer CLIMBING TEAM: Erik Weihenmayer follows climbing partners by listening to metal equipment jingling or bear bells. Interested? You can learn more about the struggles and rewards of blind climber Erik Weihenmayer's life in his book "Touch the Top of the World" (Dutton Books). It includes an addendum on being the first blind person to climb Mount Everest. The book is available at many local bookstores and outdoor shops. You can follow Weihenmayer's attempt of reaching the Seven Summits of the world by logging on to www.touchthetop.com

Thanks to becoming the first blind person to ascend the world's loftiest peak, Erik Weihenmayer appeared on more magazine covers and talk shows last year than on summits.

Time's cover screamed "Blind Faith", Climbing magazine's "The Visionary", the inside pages of Sports Illustrated clamored "Blind Ambition". Play with the words however you wish, Weihenmayer deserves them all and then some. While 70 percent of blind people are unemployed, Weihenmayer is in hot pursuit of what only 100 sighted people have ever accomplished: summitting the seven continents' summits.

Weather permitting on the snowcapped dome of Chechnya's 18,500-foot Mount Elbrus, as you read this Weihenmayer may have six down with the seven's simplest summit, Papua's 16,023-foot Carstensz Pyramid, scheduled for September. Shortly before he left for Elbrus, considered one of the easier summits, and just after he and wife Ellie assembled their 23-month-old daughter Emma's tricycle on June 4, Weihenmayer told me from his home in Golden he expected to summit Elbrus on June 15 or 16. Then it is back home on June 20, one day before Emma blows out two birthday candles.

By now, Weihenmayer's accomplishments have evolved from the ridiculous to the sublime. Despite the 33-year-old Weston, Conn., native losing his site 20 years ago to the degenerative eye disease retinoschesis, his climbing resume is legendary. North America's Denali, done it. South America's Aconcagua, aha. Antarctica's Mount Vinson, victory. Africa's Mount Kilimanjaro, kudos. He even married the former Ellie Reeve half way up that hill. Asia's Everest, extreme, but yes.

Other bulleted ascents on the resume include El Capitan, Polar Circus, a 3,000-foot ice waterfall in Alberta and the Matterhorn, not "thee" Matterhorn in Switzerland, but Disneyland's 5.6-pitch of a manmade mountain. His hobbies include acrobatic skydiving, running marathons, endurance cycling, scuba diving and downhill skiing. That should answer the question as to why Weihenmayer isn't just descending Elbrus, but doing so on skis on slopes that teeter on 40 degrees.

"Elbrus isn't Everest, but each one is dangerous and tricky and you never want to diss the mountain," he said. "The challenge will be skiing down it and the wind. The conditions near the top are very steep and the wind up there is usually blowing 30 to 50 mph."

Weihenmayer's friend, Eric Alexander, a Vail adaptive ski instructor, will -- as he was on Everest -- be on Elbrus to talk Weihenmayer down. While climbing blind is challenging enough, skiing blind on terrain too steep to avalanche, and with crevasses waiting for one miscommunication, is downright treacherous.

Climbing partners jingle metal gear or wear bear bells on their trekking poles to help Weihenmayer follow. But communicating picking a line on a 40-dgree slope is another matter.

"With skiing, there is basically more trust involved than with climbing," Weihenmayer said. "When I'm climbing, I'm scanning and feeling with my ice axe so I don't step off into a crevasse. But when you are skiing, you are going so fast that you can ski into a crevasse or off a slope in no time."

It's not easy being the other Eric in this twosome, but fortunately Alexander still can laugh about the times when his verbal turning calls to Weihenmayer have resulted in miscalculations resulting in crashes.

"One time I was going to have him spray a cameraman and I skied him right into the guy and Erik was left with a bleeding head," said Alexander, who narrowly escaped death while climbing Ama Dablam with Wiehenmayer when he fell 150 onto a ledge that prevented him from falling another 500 feet. "I've also skied him into two other people and off the slope. On Denali he partly fell into a crevasse. When you're skiing as fast as he is they are all close calls."

Alexander said though they're good friends, there are times of tension when both tire of the link between them.

"Sure, it gets frustrating for both of us at times," Alexander said. "I have to find new messages to give him and sometimes you just get frustrated and you have to say 'just do it'. But it's amazing what he'll do. He's not the most beautiful skier but he has great balance and is very athletic, and what a will. I've flattened him on moguls and I sit and wonder whey he does it when he can't see the beauty of his surroundings. I think 'how can he enjoy it'. Maybe he's a masochist. But I think more importantly he just loves the camaraderie and doing some things that people say he can't"

That does beg the question: George Mallory climbed Mount Everest "because it is there" but did Weihenmayer climb Everest because he is blind? Even Jon Krakauer, author of "Into Thin Air", a book that recounted the climbing tragedy on Everest in 1996, and top American climber Ed Viesturs were unconvinced Weihenmayer should attempt Everest.

"I don't climb mountains to prove to the world that blind people can climb mountains," Weihenmayer said. "It's over-done. The first reason why I climb is for the same reason that someone paints a picture, because I'm connected to it and it gives me great joy, passion and meaning. I climb to be with teammates whom I care about and who make me stronger than when I'm alone.

"The secondary benefit of me climbing these mountains is that it dramatically expands or shatters the perceptions people have of blind people. I believe that if you just kind of expand people's perceptions that that perception just kind of shrinks again to where it was before. I might as well do something that shatters perceptions into a million pieces so that it takes longer for people to rebuild them. That's what my climbing has done, especially Everest."

Alexander said, as crazy as it may seem, Weihenmayer's blindness was not a major obstacle on the Everest climb. Sure, it wasn't easy guiding a blind man through the 2,000-foot drop-offs of Everest's Khumbu Icefall between base camp and Camp 1 10 times, but Alexander pointed out the difficulties are the same for everyone.

"Honestly, our shot was just as good if not better than other groups because we had a good group that worked as a team," Alexander said. "If we didn't make it, it wasn't going to be because of the blindness but because of all the other variables such as the weather, illness, injury or lack of oxygen. One in 10 make it to the top on their first try and one in seven die trying."

The latter is what prompted radio know-it-all Dr. Laura Schlessinger to scold Weihenmayer for his outlandish stunt. But Weihenmayer, who makes his living writing and speaking about his adventures, said those adventures give him plenty of quality time with Ellie and Emma.

"The big force in my life is my family and I can't wait to get back from each trip," Weihenmayer said. "My family won't love me for being a famous climber, they will love me for being a good husband and a good dad that loves to play with his daughter on the floor or watch TV with her."

Weihenmayer isn't about to listen to Dr. Laura, Krakauer, Viesturs or anybody else for that matter. He feels there's enough love in his life to cover his family and his passion for adventure. And if he lives through the Seven Summits goal, he's not about to hang up the ice axe.

"There are beautiful mountains in Peru and I'm going to New Zealand to meet Edmund Hillary and climb Mount Cook," Weihenmayer said. "There are plenty of pretty mountains in the world that I haven't climbed.''

More than the eye can't see.