“Open the eyes of those who can see” – the blind alpinist Andy Holzer
His touring book commands every alpinists respect. Successfully he has coped with tours till difficulty level 7, like the Via Comici in the north-face of the Big Peak, 80 to 90 ski tours per year, high-altitude mountain climbing like the Elbrus, Kilimanjaro, Aconcagua and Mount McKinley. Andy Holzer inability to see makes his achievements all the more unbelievable. Blind from birth, the mountaineer from East Tyrol in Austria has mastered a number of extremely difficult routes and never fails to pass on some of his incredible energy and overwhelming optimism.
His fate as a „blind climber“ made him to one of the most admired alpinists of the world
Andy Holzer was born on the 3th of September 1966 in Lienz in East Tyrol and was blind from birth. In his childhood he ignored his difficult fate and practices sports such as langlauf, surfing and mountain biking. Since 1981 he plays the guitar, the bass and sings in the band “Dolomitenduo”. In 1984 he started working as a health therapist in the hospital of Lienz. In 1990 he married his wife Sabine.
With 23 years, the guide Hans Bruckner taught him the skill of climbing. Today, international experts are amazed by the accomplishments of the “blind climber”.
Holzer amazes his public
In his talk „open the eyes of those who can see“ Andy Holzer let his public participate in his adventures in the mountains. We see the blind alpinist at the ascent of the Gelbe Kante of the Tre Cime di Lavaredo, climbing the Via Comici in the Big Peak and at the ascent of the south-face of the Preußturm on the summit of the Picolissima with the three-rope team: with the leg-amputee American Hugh Herr and the blind climber Erik Weihenmayer. The tour was attended by an American film team.
Other climaxes of the talk are the effective ascents of five of the “seven summits”: Elbrus, Kilimanjaro, Aconcagua, Mount McKinley in Alaska and the Carstenz Pyramid in Oceania.
In his talks he manages to nullify the widespread prejudice, that a corporal or a mental reduction impedes any chance of a high quality life. The fact that a totally blind person enjoys life so much and is as successful as Andy Holzer amazes the public. With his famous stories, pictures and videos of extreme borderlines in cliffy rocks, of wild deep powder snow down hills and areas low in oxygen of high mountains, Andy Holzer corroborates this fact.
Website of Andy Holzer:
www.andyholzer.com
