UKC

Earlier this year, Jesse Dufton became the first blind climber to lead a climb on Devil's Tower, Wyoming, USA.

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This stuff is absolutely mind blowing. I absolutely cannot comprehend how you would do the traverse on five finger exercise blind, let alone the harder stuff Jesse has recently done!

I still find it disappointing that this piece of sacred rock was not renamed. 

The guy is a star; somehow I find what he does much more interesting and inspiring than cutting edge climbing by sighted elite climbers. 

What an inspiring story,he is an absolute hero

Full respect to Jesse ... and what a fabulous ascent .. Brilliant news.

However, I am amazed and staggered (don't understand) at how Jesse arranges pro (en route) and belay stations and has some cognisance of drops/height etc without sight ... no way I could do that... simply fabulous

Hats off to you Jesse ... Well done and any climbing tips please 

My understanding is he wears a camera and his wife (belaying) is sometimes somehow able to tell him whether the gear is OK or simply sitting in the crack. (Cam sizes are judged based on how much in terms of fingers and hands goes in the crack. Of course, he needs to have a good racking system for gear on his harness.) Their climbing partnership is explained I think in an earlier UKC interview; very interesting. Obviously there's a limit to how much she can really help. 

I don't think there's really any other way this could be achieved. As you say, if nothing else, you need to know the gear is good, and perhaps how far up the pitch you are for phyche purposes. 

I don't think he does wear a camera. Maybe they've experimented with it at some point but it's certainly not something they commonly do. I actually asked him at a talk whether they'd considered it but he didn't think it would work. As I understand it, he judges placements entirely by feel. Molly might be able to advise how good a placement is occasionally when it's low down but he must be on his own for those judgements most of the time.

Thanks for info. For physical skill and, especially, mental fortitude, these ascents have to be up there with just about anything.  

Just an absolute inspiration. I think that I'm a bit late in discovering Jesse for some reason. We watched his documentary of The Old Man of Hoy earlier this year. Then watched it again the next nights. One of the best documentaries of any genre that I've ever seen.