[Editor's note: the following post originally appeared on Erik Weihenmayer's blog, http://www.touchthetop.com/blog/, and is being republished here with his permission. Among Erik's many notable achievements, he is a CareerConnect mentor as well as the first blind person to reach the summit of Mt. Everest. This summer Erik is starring in ABC's Expedition Impossible. You can catch the show Thursday nights at 9 EST. Learn more about Erik at his website, http://www.touchthetop.com/.]
I hope you enjoyed the first episode of Expedition Impossible, which aired last Thursday night on ABC! Somebody sure did because the show was ranked #1 among adults 18 to 49, teens 12 to 17, and kids 2 to 11—the highest rating the network has had on Thursday night since the finale of Lost in 2008.
While I can't tell you anything about future episodes, as long as Team No Limits hangs in there, I will post some stories about what happened that you don't see on the camera.
For example, you may not have realized that the first of the ten stages was actually two days long. The first day of racing wasn't too critical except the winning team got a 5-minute head start the next morning. And the teams that came in 2nd, 3rd, and 4th, then got a 5-minute head start over the remaining teams. It's the second day of a stage that really matters because that's when the helicopter may be flying you away.
As we were resting in our Berber tent before the start on the first day, I left to go to the bathroom and Mark Burnett came in and had a talk with Jeff. Mark asked, "Are you sure he's going to be able to handle this?" Jeff replies, "Yeah, I think so." Then Mark says, "Well I hope we haven't made a big mistake here." Jeff told me this of course and we both think Mark said this on purpose, knowing I would hear about it. Not 100% sure, but if this was part of his plan, it totally worked. When somebody says I can't do something, I tend to get fired up!
At this early stage of the competition, all the teams are checking each other out. We had seen each other in L.A. at the audition and again in a hotel on the way to Morocco but nobody was allowed to talk to other teams. So Jeff and Ike sized up the others for me. We laughed about the guys in knee-high purple socks but, at the same time, they looked pretty fit. We also saw these giant guys, who we later discovered were NFL football players. We joked, "Big trees fall hard." When we happened to pass Akbar in the hotel, he actually growled at us, which was rather unsettling. It turned out he was totally kidding and is actually a super nice guy!
The first day involved the brutal sand dune climb in searing heat. Notice that out of all 39 contestants, I was the only smart one who wore gaiters to keep sand out of my shoes. This may sound like a small thing but everyone else had sand piling down their feet that gave them huge blisters. Jeff and Ike had to stop several times to pour sand out of their shoes.
Did I mention how brutal the climb was? The show focused on Chad (from the Country Boys) suffering but I can tell you he wasn't the only one. Jeff and I had just arrived from Colorado, which gave us a bit of an edge, but poor Ike was a flatlander and he really struggled. Of course Ike soldiered on—he's earned two Bronze Star Medals, a Purple Heart, and an Army Commendation Medal after all— but this raised the specter of doubt about our team's success for the first time.
The second day was really hard for me because it was super rocky as we descended into a valley. This type of terrain is very difficult for me to move through quickly and I got worked. At this point, we were about even with the Fishermen but eventually I couldn't keep up the pace and they passed us. As they went by, one of them turned to us and with that thick accent said, "Remember our names, we're the Fishermen. We're for real!" After that, Jeff, who is super competitive said, "I hate those guys!"
So lots of early assessments going on on everyone's part. I can't fault the girl who wrote me off in the beginning: She said something like, "There's a blind guy on one of the teams, so I know we'll beat at least one team." Like a lot of people, she just had no idea what a blind person is capable of. As we got to know the Fishermen, we actually liked them a lot; they came across as Gloucester gruff at first but were really awesome—sincere, hard working and the kinds of guys who you'd want around in a raging storm. They also had incredible fishing stories, going out to sea for weeks on end and having to be totally self-reliant. The Football Players are actually the nicest guys in the world. Akbar is a gentle giant full of curiosity, except when it comes to all the insects around camp. All the creepy crawlies terrified him.
Our big mistake wasn't mis-counting the snakes, it was moving too fast. We were among the front runners and just made a mistake, which was a huge bummer that cost us a half hour. But that's one of the things you learn from experience... you screw up, you make a mistake, deal with it. The faster you get over it and the faster you come together as a team and figure how you're going to remedy the situation and get back on track, the faster you're back in the game. I was really proud of Ike and Jeff because we kept our heads together even though we made this blunder.
Well that's it for now. Stay tuned for next week's episode [Editor's note: Thursday night] and then come back to my blog for more behind the scene stories!
