Blind climber Jesse Dufton refuses to think of himself as disabled – an attitude he vividly showed on a death-defying ascent.
Jesse is the first athlete with no vision to lead a climb of Orkney’s 449ft-high Old Man of Hoy, a feat captured for a documentary airing this week.
But he says not being able to see the terrifying drops on the seven-hour ascent was no help.
Jesse said: “People ask, ‘Does it help that you can’t see?’.”
“And the answer I always give is, ‘I don’t think there is anything about climbing blind that makes it easier.’”
Jesse, who made the ascent with wife-cum-climbing buddy Molly adds: “It’s quite possible that I wouldn’t be as good a climber if I weren’t blind – if I didn’t have these challenges. It wouldn’t focus me.
“Doing that climb was a testament to the outlook I’ve always had – which is I’m not disabled, I’m blind and able.
“The feeling of accomplishment is incredible.”
Jesse, 34, was born with genetic condition retinitis pigmentosa, which left him around 20% central vision. It slowly deteriorated until he was almost 100% blind.
While he is happily planning more climbs – in the US and on ice in Canada – his chief hope is to see his wife again.
In the film he admits: “The thing that hurts most is not being able to see Molly’s face.
“There’s a photo of her with a pair of sunglasses on, that’s my image of her.”
Jesse, part of the UK’s paraclimbing team, tries not to “obsess” about the idea of one day regaining his sight. “I can’t base my life around something that might not happen,” he said.
But he hopes technology will make the dream a reality.
“They’re thinking about basically making people bionic, so you’d have a sensor like a camera and they’d wire that to your optic nerves.”
For now he is happy to keep risking it all at the end of a rope.
“There has to be the possibility of failure. Otherwise, it’s not a challenge, right?” he said.
“You feel a bit of stress, and, obviously, it’s really hard work.
“You’re trying to keep your pulse rate from going sky high.
“If you start panicking, you’ll spiral out of control and fall.”
- Climbing Blind, Wednesday, 9pm, BBC4.
