Deep Reads: An elite rock climber lost his vision, then found a way to climb blind
Post Reports
The Washington Post
4.4 • 5.1K Ratings
🗓️ 31 August 2024
⏱️ 25 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Jesse Dufton was born with a condition in which the light-sensing cells of his retina gradually deteriorated. This did not stop him from climbing with his family – bouldering by age 2, securing his own ropes by 5.
When Dufton went to public school and then university, he downplayed his vision problems as he became a better climber. Then he met Molly Thompson, who took note of his long hair that made him look like a mature student.
The two grew closer and often climbed together. But even as the couple was falling in love, Dufton was losing all of his sight. Dufton and Thompson had to invent new ways of communicating to continue their love of climbing.
This story was written and read by Kevin Sieff. Audio production and original music composition by Bishop Sand.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hi, I'm Kevin Seif, an international investigative reporter for the Washington Post. |
| 0:05.0 | This is a story about Jesse Duffin, a world-class rock climber who lost his eyesight |
| 0:10.0 | and had to reinvent the way he ascends mountains with the help of his partner. |
| 0:14.0 | I think one thing that struck me reporting the story was just watching a thing |
| 0:22.0 | that I think I'd assumed to be kind of impossible happen in front of my eyes. |
| 0:27.8 | Like the mechanics of it didn't make any sense to me until I saw Jesse do it. |
| 0:34.0 | And tried my best to climb some of the same routes that he was climbing just to get a sense of how difficult they are. |
| 0:39.0 | So when I took that additional step of trying to imagine how he does it without seeing it really is like it's almost too much it's almost too much to think about it's like enough to throw you off the mountain. |
| 0:54.5 | It's like he's just playing a different sport than I am. Okay, here's the story. |
| 1:07.0 | here's the story. Molly Thompson craned her neck so she could make out the man climbing the tower of red rock. |
| 1:22.0 | Not quite a good leg ledge there, I just... |
| 1:25.0 | Yeah. Squinting into the desert sun, |
| 1:28.0 | she tried to identify crack |
| 1:30.0 | so he could grab onto a ledge wide enough for his foot. |
| 1:35.0 | The climber, struggling to keep his grip, was her husband, |
| 1:40.0 | Jesse Duffin. His left arm trembled from the effort. |
| 1:49.0 | His foot probed for a more secure hold, but found nothing. |
| 1:54.0 | A little bit higher. |
| 1:55.0 | Molly said into a headset. |
| 1:57.0 | Jesse was listening on his end. |
| 2:00.0 | The audio was a little muddled, but they let us listen in and record it. |
| 2:04.0 | Is your foot hold up in left, Jess. |
... |
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