A unique opportunity to hear Jeff and the MountainVision keynote in Vail, open to the public and best of all....FREE.Jeff will be the keynote speaker at the Vail Symposium on Thursday, February 25th. Tickets are free, however they do expect the 250 seat theatre to sell out. Information and details can be found on the Vail Symposium website.
A brief article from the Vail Daily regarding the visit:
VAIL, Colorado — This year alone, mountaineering guide and author Jeff Evans is undertaking five adventures that would be considered daunting by nearly anyone's standards. In June he will trek to Machu Picchu and then climb Nevado Copa in Peru's Cordillera Blanca range; in August he'll guide his 10th trip up Kilimanjaro in Tanzania; in September and October he'll lead 12 wounded U.S. soldiers up Lobouche East, a 20,075 foot peak at the foot of Mount Everest in Nepal; and in December, he'll return to Kilimanjaro to lead a private group up the mountain.
Despite Evans' upcoming trips, and the other things he's done over the past 20 years — he's stood on six continents and been on seven Himalayan expeditions — it was saying one word 16 years ago that he considers to be the most adventurous thing he's ever done. “Initially it was accepting the role of being the head guide for an unknown blind dude who wanted to go climb mountains,” Evans said during a phone interview this week. “It's taken me here, to this point.
”The “blind dude” is Erik Weihenmayer, the only blind man in history to have summited Everest as well as the world's “seven summits” — the highest peak on every continent. “Erik kept asking all of these established mountain guides and no one wanted to do it,” Evans said. “He got all the way down the list to the losers like me and I said, ‘yeah, sure.'”
The two summited Everest on May 25, 2001, which Weihenmayer wrote about in his memoir “Touch the Top of the World.” The expedition was also chronicled in the documentary “Farther Than The Eye Can See.”Evans will speak at the Vail Symposium's Unlimited Adventure series Thursday evening at Donovan Pavilion in Vail. “If you love the mountains, you will thoroughly enjoy hearing from Jeff's varied experience,” said Carrie Marsh, executive director of the Vail Symposium.
Adventure Stories
Evans will show a slide show and talk about some of the adventures he's had over the years with Weihenmayer, including an expedition with six blind Tibetan teenagers that took the group to 21,500 feet on the flanks of Mount Everest. The trip was chronicled in the documentary “Blindsight,” which has won a handful of awards.“The trip, as most trips do, evolved into something completely different than what we expected,” Evans said. “It turned into a study of cultures ... (the teenagers) were out for adventure, and we wanted to climb a big mountain.
”He'll also discuss some of his solo adventure races and talk about what the future holds — including the expedition with half a dozen wounded soldiers planned for this coming fall.“These are men — and hopefully women too — who have all been injured in Iraq and Afghanistan,” Evans said. “Some are blind, some have amputations and other disabilities.”The $500,000 project will be filmed in HD — and perhaps with Imax 3D cameras — by six Marine field cameramen. Tom Brokaw will narrate the film and adventure filmmaker Michael Brown (he also did “Farther Than The Eye Can See”) will produce and edit the film. “We're working with World Team Sports and their whole mission is bringing injured soldiers to these adventurous places,” Evans said. “These soldiers are guys who have given a lot and who have been hammered. Now it's time for them to reclaim their lives.”
