Welcome to SurvivorNetTV‘s latest film, Climbing Blind, the story of Jesse Dufton, an avid climber who attempts to be the first blind person to lead a group of climbers up the iconic Old Man of Hoy 449-foot sea stack off the north coast of Scotland.
While the Old Man of Hoy has seen its fair share of blind climbers, “they’re always second in,” says one interviewee. “Sounds like a terrible idea,” says one naysayer, of Dufton’s goal. But his ceaseless determination is what matters most. His blindness is the result of a genetic condition, which impaired his sight gradually with age. “Over time,” says Dufton, “as more of the back of my eye dies off and degrades, probably the big step change was in about 2012. That’s when I lost the ability to read.” Dufton goes onto explain his current limitations, saying, “Most of my field of view just doesn’t exist.”
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