From Publishers Weekly
In this moving and adventure-packed memoir, Weihenmayer begins with his gradual loss of sight as a very young child. By the time he became fully blind in high school, he had already developed the traits that would carry him to the summits of some of the world's highest mountains as well as onto the frequently hazardous slopes of daily life: charm, resilience, a sense of humor, a love of danger and a concern for others. His eloquent memoir exhibits all these traits. Weihenmayer--a thrill seeker who skydives, climbs mountains and skis--devotes the first half of the book to his adolescence, punctuated by his loss of sight, his mother's sudden death and his diligent efforts not only to pick up girls, but first to figure out which ones were attractive. With its many tales of pranks, adventures and the talents of his guide dog, this half alone is worth the price of admission. He goes on to chronicle his young adulthood, including his teaching career and his passion for climbing, seeded during a month-long skills camp for blind adolescents and blossoming on his harrowing ascent of Mount McKinley. He describes fearsome ascents of Kilimanjaro--with his fianc‚e, so they can be married near the crater summit--El Capitan and Aconcagua's Polish Glacier. Weihenmayer tells his extraordinary story with humor, honesty and vivid detail, and his fortitude and enthusiasm are deeply inspiring. With the insightful intimacy of Tom Sullivan's classic If You Could See What I Hear and the intensity of the best adventure narratives, Weihenmayer's story will appeal to a broad audience. Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.


From Library Journal
An athletic youth went blind in his teens, courageously adjusted to obstacles, and took up mountain climbing. About half of Touch the Top of the World is autobiographical, and the rest recounts the agony and hardships of climbing. Weihenmayer reached the top of the highest peaks around the world, becoming the first blind man to summit Mt. McKinley. His nurturing mother calmed his early rebelliousness, but she died when he was still young and learning to cope with sightlessness. He learned to depend on other senses for his teaching career and later for those treacherous rocks, snow, and ice. He tells us frank stories about blind schools, his guide dogs, marriage on a mountain, and gross language of fellow mountain climbers, who dubbed him "Super Blind." Reader Nick Sullivan carries the narrative smoothly and distinguishes the quotations from some quirky characters. Recommended for listeners interested in climbing, blindness, and travel. Gordon Blackwell, Eastchester, NY Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From AudioFile
Erik Weihenmayer, a blind man who climbed Mount Everest, has written a book that touches and inspires. In it, he discusses his struggles, failures, and successes without self-righteousness or bitterness. Nick Sullivan's reading captures Weihenmayer's persona with natural ease; he is adept discussing the limitations Weihenmayer's visual impairment creates. But his performance goes further. Sullivan exudes the admiration of Weihenmayer's friends and family for this world-class athlete, and also conveys the frustration Weihenmayer feels when he is treated differently because of his blindness. TOUCH THE TOP OF THE WORLD makes the reader realize that, quite often, our limitations are those we impose upon ourselves, and that dreams are worth pursuing. D.J.S. © AudioFile 2002, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine


From Booklist
Here's an exciting, one-of-a-kind memoir that should appeal to lovers of man-against-nature adventure stories. The author has jumped from airplanes, bicycled distances that tested the limits of his endurance, run a marathon, and scaled some of the world's highest peaks. As if that weren't enough, he has been blind since he was a teenager. To reach the summit of Mount McKinley or El Capitan is achievement enough; it seems almost inconceivable that a blind man could do so. But the author is clearly a remarkable man, and he makes us believe that we, too, can do the virtually impossible, if we're determined enough. He looks back on his life, on his struggle to do what most of us could not summon the bravery to attempt, and we cannot help but admire him. He never presents himself as a hero, but his accomplishments speak for themselves. The word inspiring is used far too often in book reviews, but here is one case where it really is appropriate. David Pitt
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

FROM OUR EDITORS

The Barnes & Noble Review
Climbing Alaska's Mt. McKinley, Argentina's Aconcagua, and Yellowstone's forbiddingly sheer rock faces is a sufficient challenge to elite mountain climbers with all their faculties intact. Erik Weihenmayer has managed to accomplish these feats without the ability to see. Among the recent blizzard of mountain-climbing books Touch the Top of the World offers a truly unique perspective. Weihenmayer tells a touching and disarmingly funny story of his early life and inspired ascents.

Born with a severe case of glaucoma, Weihenmayer endured a childhood of increasingly blurry vision. However, Weihenmayer's mother let him get away with nothing. She insisted he attend a traditional school for sighted people and scolded a teacher who sympathetically approved one of Erik's unintelligible quiz papers: "Damn smiley face. Draw a pitchfork and horns next time."

By adolescence, Weihenmayer had completely lost his sight and reluctantly adopted the expedients of the blind: Braille, a seeing-eye dog, and walking sticks. Never, though, did Weihenmayer draw back from pursuing goals that seemingly required sight. Weihenmayer took up wrestling in high school and later became a teacher and wrestling coach. A family hiking excursion on the Inca trail in Peru whetted his appetite for increasingly challenging outdoor adventures. His mother's premature death in a car accident only reinforced his moxie.

Weihenmayer's mountaintop descriptions are vivid and picturesque. While mountaineering books often fixate on the grueling process (wrote Jon Krakauer in Into Thin Air "I understood on some dim, detached level that the sweep of earth beneath my feet was a spectacular sight.... But I just couldn't summon the energy to care"), Weihenmayer is, ironically, attuned to what lures many to the mountains to begin with -- the magnificent views! He vicariously enjoys the visions of his climbing friends; "[T]he glorious sun rose up over the summit of Mount Rainier, orange and gold and fiery."

Like most mountaineers, Weihenmayer's climbing buddies are vital to him. With his hand resting heavily on his friend Jeff's shoulder, Erik is reminded that "If you fall, we all fall." At one point it is Jeff who must rely on Erik to find a trail when the two are stranded in complete darkness.

A lifetime of mocking convention has colored Weihenmayer's sense of humor: He laughs at his deficiencies without belittling them. One of his childhood misfortunes was his musical ineptitude. Quips Erik, "Being musically inclined was supposed to go hand and hand with blindness. It was supposed to be part of the package deal." At Camp Canada, 16,500 feet up on Anconcagua (which proved a peskier challenge than McKinley), Weihenmayer mistook a pee bottle for a water bottle and took a big swig. Ever the romantic in his youth, Weihenmayer devised schemes to assess women's physical appeal. These stories and others are delivered with appropriate aplomb.

Weihenmayer's experiences, above all, remind readers of what the blind and the sighted have in common. Like Marla Runyan, the legally blind distance runner who finished eighth at the 2000 Olympics in the 1,500 meters, Weihenmayer is excelling at a sport where sight is taken for granted. Writes Weihenmayer, "People sensationalize the lives of blind people, when, often, all they did was exhibit a semblance of normalcy." (Brenn Jones)

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Erik Weihenmayer was born with retinoscheses, a degenerative eye disorder that would progressively unravel his retinas. He learned from doctors that he was destined to lose his sight by age thirteen. Yet from early on he was determined to rise above this disability. In Touch the Top of the World, Erik recalls his struggle to push past the limits placed on him by his visual impairment -- and by a seeing world. He speaks movingly of the role his family played in his battle to break through the barriers of blindness: the mother who prayed for the miracle that would restore her son's sight, the father who encouraged him to strive for the "unreachable" mountaintop. Fewer than a hundred mountaineers have climbed all Seven Summits -- the highest peak on each of the seven continents. Erik Weihenmayer has reached four of the seven. From the snow-capped summit of McKinley to the high peaks of Aconcagua and Kilimanjaro, Erik's story is truly one of having the vision to dream big; the courage to reach for near impossible goals; and the grit, determination, and ingenuity to transform our lives into something miraculous.

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly

In this moving and adventure-packed memoir, Weihenmayer begins with his gradual loss of sight as a very young child. By the time he became fully blind in high school, he had already developed the traits that would carry him to the summits of some of the world's highest mountains as well as onto the frequently hazardous slopes of daily life: charm, resilience, a sense of humor, a love of danger and a concern for others. His eloquent memoir exhibits all these traits. Weihenmayer--a thrill seeker who skydives, climbs mountains and skis--devotes the first half of the book to his adolescence, punctuated by his loss of sight, his mother's sudden death and his diligent efforts not only to pick up girls, but first to figure out which ones were attractive. With its many tales of pranks, adventures and the talents of his guide dog, this half alone is worth the price of admission. He goes on to chronicle his young adulthood, including his teaching career and his passion for climbing, seeded during a month-long skills camp for blind adolescents and blossoming on his harrowing ascent of Mount McKinley. He describes fearsome ascents of Kilimanjaro--with his fianc e, so they can be married near the crater summit--El Capitan and Aconcagua's Polish Glacier. Weihenmayer tells his extraordinary story with humor, honesty and vivid detail, and his fortitude and enthusiasm are deeply inspiring. With the insightful intimacy of Tom Sullivan's classic If You Could See What I Hear and the intensity of the best adventure narratives, Weihenmayer's story will appeal to a broad audience. (Feb. 14) Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

Library Journal

An athletic youth went blind in his teens, courageously adjusted to obstacles, and took up mountain climbing. About half of Touch the Top of the World is autobiographical, and the rest recounts the agony and hardships of climbing. Weihenmayer reached the top of the highest peaks around the world, becoming the first blind man to summit Mt. McKinley. His nurturing mother calmed his early rebelliousness, but she died when he was still young and learning to cope with sightlessness. He learned to depend on other senses for his teaching career and later for those treacherous rocks, snow, and ice. He tells us frank stories about blind schools, his guide dogs, marriage on a mountain, and gross language of fellow mountain climbers, who dubbed him "Super Blind." Reader Nick Sullivan carries the narrative smoothly and distinguishes the quotations from some quirky characters. Recommended for listeners interested in climbing, blindness, and travel. Gordon Blackwell, Eastchester, NY Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.

AudioFile

Erik Weihenmayer, a blind man who climbed Mount Everest, has written a book that touches and inspires. In it, he discusses his struggles, failures, and successes without self-righteousness or bitterness. Nick Sullivan's reading captures Weihenmayer's persona with natural ease; he is adept discussing the limitations Weihenmayer's visual impairment creates. But his performance goes further. Sullivan exudes the admiration of Weihenmayer's friends and family for this world-class athlete, and also conveys the frustration Weihenmayer feels when he is treated differently because of his blindness. TOUCH THE TOP OF THE WORLD makes the reader realize that, quite often, our limitations are those we impose upon ourselves, and that dreams are worth pursuing. D.J.S. (c) AudioFile 2002, Portland, Maine

WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING