[originaltext] Like hundreds before them, a team of 10 Americans arrived at t

Like hundreds before them, a team of 10 Americans arrived at the second of four base camps on Mt. Everest this week. But like few others, this one had a goal of making history.
   That’s because one of its members is 32-year-old Erik Weihenmeyer, who hopes to become the first blind man to clear the famed 29, 035-foot peak.
   Weihenmeyer has been blind since age 13, having lost his sight to a rare disease called retinoschisis. But despite his lack of sight, the Denver, Colo , man has still managed to turn himself into a world-class adventurer--a certified sky and scuba diver who also competes in long-distance biking and marathon running, as well as skiing and mountaineering. In 1995, he scaled North America’s highest peak, Mt. McKinley; in 1997, he topped Mt. Kilimanjaro, and in January 1999, he summited Argentina’s Aconcagua, the tallest mountain in South America.  Weihenmeyer has climbed mountains using a system be devised himself. He works with two long adjustable trekking poles--leaning on one and scanning in front of him with another. He’ll also use his sense of hearing, listening to footsteps around him and a bell tied to the climber ahead of him. But Weinthenmeyer says he’ll also be a real part of the team. He says he’s strong, and can contribute by carrying loads, setting up tents and building up snow walls. Weihenmeyer says he wants to climb the highest peak on all seven continents-- but he says he’s no daredevil. Still, Weihenmeyer admits to scary moments. One of the worst was on an open ridge, on Mt. McKinley, where a miscalculation of a few inches could have meant death. The lessons are only part of the reason Weinhenmeyer wanted to climb Everest. He says he’s wanted to take on the mountain for a long time. The folklore surrounding the mountain, all the famous tales --" You read about it from such an early age. It’s cool to be part of it," he said. There’ s the bonus of feeling of the sun on your face, and sensing the height of where you are, from the sound and the space around you. That blindness is also a reason he’s climbing. He’s being supported by the National Federation for the Blind, an activist organization seeking to change the way people think about blindness. But Weihenmeyer also recognizes that a good part of his climb is for himself.
   Weibenmeyer’s team will attempt to summit Everest via the southeast ridge route pioneered by Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgny 47 years ago. The team attempted to summit the 22,486 foot Mount Ama Dablam, in the Everest region in Nepal last gear, but had to withdraw because of bad weather. In May 1998, a disabled American climber, Tom Whittacker, who has an artificial leg, climbed Everest.