With breathtaking pictures on the screen behind him, world-renowned climber Todd Skinner spoke to more than 250 students at the Cook Auditorium last night.
A dream he said began 10 years ago, led Skinner, along with three others, to climb the East Face of the Nameless Tower in the Himalayas. The Tower, which stands at 20,500 feet, is "the wildest piece of possibly free climbable rock in the world," Skinner said.
Free climbing means climbing free of using equipment to gain movement up the rock. A rope is used only for safety.
Skinner said a free climber's only tools are "his ability to solve problems in his mind and move gracefully using his power and his bare hands."
To Skinner, free climbing is the best way to climb as he says, "the question is not whether you stand on top, it's how hard the route was. It's how you get there that's important."
In order to accomplish their goal of reaching the summit, Skinner and the three others lived on the mountain for 60 days. They spent many nights in hanging tents, which hung from ropes off the face of the mountain. They climbed with little oxygen, not knowing if the climb was even possible.
The team accomplished their goal just in time. Skinner said towards the end they were running out of both food and fuel and had almost no energy after barely surviving a storm that lasted 10 days and nearly forced the team to turn back.
The trip gained Skinner world-wide recognition and he was featured on the cover of last April's National Geographic. His speech and slide show presentation was part of a seven-speech trip that will include a stop today at the University of Vermont in Burlington.
Skinner often referred to the power of the mind. He said he takes his mental approach towards physical events from Easter philosophy.
"Every event must first be accomplished in the mind. If a dream seems unreachable you must take steps to make the dream more manageable," he said.
Skinner gives much of the credit for the team's success to its positive mental outlook.
"At first, mentally we did not know how we were going to accomplish it. We had to expand our imaginations before we were able to accomplish our goal," he said.
According to Skinner, there is failure only comes in quitting. "If you do not stop, you will not fail. If it is possible, you have an obligation to complete it," he said.
Skinner concluded by telling the audience he is always searching for an even greater challenge.
"The goal is to find something harder than we have done before. To believe in our minds that we can do it and get our body to follow," he said.
