Erik Weihenmayer is the sort of athlete for whom the label “disabled” approaches farce: since losing his vision as a teenager, he’s set records on some of the most challenging terrain on Earth. But as diligently as he accumulates firsts, Weihenmayer works to ensure that his accomplishments don’t remain onlys. An author, motivational speaker, and expedition leader, he’s committed to helping others overcome their own personal challenges by cultivating an inner strength he calls the “adversity advantage.”

Weihenmayer is also a vocal advocate for wilderness conservation—and for the small local parks and open spaces where so many Americans get their first taste of the outdoors. As a longtime friend of Trust for Public Land, he’s helped us rally support for the protection of places like Colorado’s Bridal Veil Falls and Utah’s Zion Narrows.

We met Weihenmayer at his home in Golden, Colorado, to discuss his advocacy work, his training, and the “bring it on” philosophy that’s taken him to the top of the world.

What is the typical reaction you get when you tell people what you do?

There are always people who share your vision and there are those who don’t. When I was younger I would tell people I wanted to climb Everest. Some people would say, that’s so cool, I’d love to get behind that and help you. Other people—of course I couldn’t see them, but I envisioned them looking at me like, are you crazy? They’d say, you’re going to kill yourself, you’re going to slow everyone down. You’re going to have to take massive amounts of risk. I guess that’s how I’d split the world up: either you’re a believer or you’re a naysayer.

So what do you tell the naysayers?

When people said I couldn’t do this or that, I mean, I didn’t say anything to them—I responded by going and doing it. I don’t try to do things in the mountains or on the rivers just to prove that blind people can; I try to be motivated by friendship, by great teams, by figuring out how to problem-solve and innovate around barriers.

I think our country was founded on this pioneering mind-set—people finding passes over the mountains, starting homesteads, and figuring out how to survive and flourish with their families and their communities. That’s our history, and I think in the modern world it’s still important to see ourselves as pioneers: to discover, to innovate, to create.

How did you arrive at your approach to adversity in your own life?

I went blind from a very rare eye disease just before my freshman year in high school. At first, I was being led from class to class, being led all around, and I hated that.

I remember sitting in the cafeteria alone and listening to people—all the kids around me laughing and telling jokes—and wondering, is the adventure and the happiness of my life gone? Is it over? Is this it? Am I going to be swept to the sidelines to listen to life go by from a dark place?

And I know it sounds negative, but that fear motivated me to not ever let myself be left out. I made a decision to get in the middle of everything, try anything and everything.

Erik Weihenmayer with hiking helmet and poles sits on the rocky summit of Wilson Peak, CO

Erik Weihenmayer and Chad Jukes climbing Bridal Veil Falls Ice Wall, on behalf of the Trust for Public Land in Telluride, CO.

With his hiking poles and helmet, blind climber Erik Weihenmayer and hiking guide make their way up the rocky trail to the summit of Wilson Peak, CO.

With his hiking poles and helmet, blind climber Erik Weihenmayer and hiking guide make their way up the rocky trail to the summit of Wilson Peak, CO.

Do you think that nature and the outdoors helped you come to terms with going blind?

One hundred percent. For me the outdoors was transformative. There was a weekend when this blindness center was taking blind kids rock climbing. I read the announcement in braille and I said, I’m going to sign up. It’s totally insane, trying to stick to a rock face, but I’m going to try.

I remember feeling my way up the rock with my hands and feet as my eyes, smelling this beautiful pine forest, reaching the top for the first time. And I thought, this is the adventure of my life. I thought my life was over, but it’s just starting. The outdoors put me on this wonderful trajectory of growth and evolution. The greatest things in my life have come from the outdoors.

Can you describe a particularly inspiring moment you’ve had in nature?

I don’t know how I’d limit it to one thing! But I remember sitting at Camp 2 on Everest and waking up to a big storm. The snow was coming down and it had a beautiful, soft sound. Every time I heard the thunderclap it was like sonar, this echo across the mountains. And for me, being blind, I could sort of hear the mountains through that flash of sound—this brief moment of being able to see the entire mountain chain of the Himalayas.

I experience the beauty of the outdoors in my own way: even though I can’t see it, I’m touching it, I’m hearing it, I’m sensing it. Sound has a feel and a density to it. When you’re up high on a mountain like one of the seven summits, sound seems to move out infinitely through space. It’s awe-inspiring. It’s like you’ve been swallowed by sky. You’re just a tiny little speck in this giant, empty sky.

You’ve spent a lot of time in the mountains, but your next big adventure is on the water—kayaking the Grand Canyon. How is whitewater different from your previous undertakings?

In the mountains, when the wind is howling and you’re getting sketched out, you can go back. If you’re skiing and you’re in over your head, you can stop. In rock climbing you can put in a piece of gear and you can clip in and hang and take a moment.

But when you’re kayaking, you’re reacting to rapids, to waves smashing you from every direction. And you can’t stop—you have to perform. I’ve never done something in the outdoors that’s required so much quick thinking in the midst of so much chaos. It’s a sport that I enjoy, but it’s definitely still pretty scary to me.

Tell us about No Barriers.

So we all have people who inspire us and push us on, and then we in turn push others. I love the idea that I’m opening doors and nudging people forward through what I do. The idea is to help people tap into the human spirit to break through barriers. Our motto is, “What’s within you is stronger than what’s in your way.”

The outdoors have this amazing therapeutic ability to help people to find peace, to find meaning, to find joy again. The outdoors can be the greatest laboratory, the greatest classroom that we have on Earth.

This interview was conducted by Allie Ferguson. It originally ran in the 2014 Spring/Summer issue of Land&People magazine.